


Team Fortress 2 AU

by novarose122001



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Curiosity, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, G/T, Giant/Tiny, Giants, Hurt/Comfort, Kindness, Protection, TINY - Freeform, gentle giants
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-04-18 14:32:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 41,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14215236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/novarose122001/pseuds/novarose122001
Summary: The year is 2020, and it "was" a normal day, until the horde of mysterious robots appeared and killed everyone in the whole world, all except a young girl.She ran away from one of the robots, hoping for escape, but, unfortunately, she stepped onto a teleporter and got teleported to an unknown area, with giants.Terrified and nervous, she was caught by one of the nine giants and was taken into the RED base of the bases and was kept in there for protection.Now, utterly scared, she hides in the walls of the RED base and couldn't come out to confront her fear.While she was staying in the RED base, she encounters one by one of the team members, slowly developing a friendship between them.But, can she find out who creates the robots that attack the RED and BLU team?





	1. Prologue: Escaped, Shrunken, and Caught

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A young girl runs away from a machine deep in the forest until she accidentally tripped over a piece of root and landed on something, that mysteriously teleported her somewhere else.

It was a peaceful night in the woods.

Birds were chirping happily in the trees until a loud, mechanical, and bellowing roar echoed through the woods, causing the birds to fly out of the trees, with panicked tweeting followed after them.

Then, the bushes in the woods ruffled a couple of times, until a running body came out from between the bushes and ran as fast as the figure can go.

The running figure ran into in the grassy plain, as the moonlight reflects onto the form.

In the moonlight, it shows the figure is actually a female.

She has tanned almond skin and long brown hair to the middle of her back.

The hair on the right-hand side of her temple is dyed in a light cyan blue colored dye and hidden within the thickness of her hair.

She is wearing a pair of opaque blue square glasses with round corners for her eyes.

Over her body is a blue, white, cerulean, peacock, and sky cameo sweater with a hoodie that is enormous that reaches down to her thighs, with pockets on the sides and a silver zipper in the front, and with frost hems at the ends of the sleeves and the lowest part of the garment.

She is also wearing a pair of blue jeans and a pair of light purple and light blue shoes with white shoelaces.

The female has her hood up over her head, covering her face from anyone that is roaming around in the forest and on her back is a denim blue backpack decorated with black flowers.

The female is speeding from one side to the other of the woods, panting after each step as she takes, and the look upon her face looked sad because the tear stains on her rosy cheeks, but terrified with fear.

She ran desperately past the trees, darted from one side to the other of the grassy meadows, rushed through the grass like plains without stopping to take a break.

The girl tore between bushes in her path, not bothering to stop if they are toxic with itching acid or sharp to prick her skin.

As she rushed through the forest, another mechanical roar echoed through the trees, causing more birds to fly out of the trees.

She gasped in fear when she heard the noise too from behind her back.

She slowed down her pace slightly and glanced over her shoulder, still running past the trees, dodging them at each turn.

An enormous machine with glowing blue eyes came out of the bushes.

It has a metal jaw and a blue metal undershirt with a yellow symbol shaped like a mighty fist on each shoulder.

The giant machine has its hands out in front of it as if it was going to catch her once it caught up with her.

Over its body is a black metal like a bulletproof vest with black metal ammunition over his shoulder and gray metal-like pants and dark metal “boots.”

The giant robot gave out a mechanical roar like the other roar it did through the case when its optics caught sight of her.

She gasped in fear when it roared and glanced back in front, quickening her pace from slowing down slightly.

The girl bolted as fast as she could through the forest, while the giant robot was chasing after her, but the speed was slow because of the weight of the machine.

As she ran faster than before, worried she might get killed if she slowed down.

She did not know the robot is losing vision of her, she raced deep into the dark woods, not caring to stop and take a break from all the running.

The girl suddenly tripped over an exposed dead branch of a tree it discarded a long time ago.

She gasped as she was flung forward, expecting to land harshly on the ground, as she has her hands out to stop herself from landing.

Instead, she noticed a flat piece of metal poking out of the ground, aimed for her forehead.

Luckily, she twisted her body before the piece of metal hits her head, but the metal instead hits the right side of her temple.

She blacked out from the direct impact of the strange piece of metal, as a dull clunk noise came from it.

After what had been hours, she finally opened her eyes from the loud distorted noises that echoed around her.

Her eye color somehow turned into steel-blue and heard loud voices furiously yelling in different locations, with earthshaking footsteps.

Wait a minute.

‘Earthshaking footsteps?’

She jolted up to her bottom from the ground and noticed the area around where she is looked… huge.

Even though, where is she?

She slowly got up to her sore feet, she stretched out her feet from running through the forest to escape from that robot giant and sighed to herself.

After she had got up from the dirty ground, she started to walk away from her spot, looking for a restroom where she can use it and mend her bruises, scratches, and clean her clothes.

At that moment, after taking a step forward, an enormous boot in a dark color landed right in front of her, inches away from her face.

She immediately gave out a surprised cry before quickly covered her mouth with both of her hands, worried about who or what could be in front of her could attack her.

Luckily, the being did not hear her scream.

After a few moments have passed, the boot moved away from in front of her, as she looked up in fear to see what is in front of her.

When she glanced up to the sky, she was frightened at what she noticed, her body shaking from head to toe as her face went pale.

Standing in front of her is a giant man, with fair skin color.

He is wearing a soldier helmet on his head, which covers his eyes from seeing anything.

It was lucky for her compared to her and the giant’s helmet.

He is also wearing a red jacket to the bottom of his waist, with two orange symbols are in the shape of a rocket at his shoulders.

Underneath his jacket is a white undershirt.

A black waistband is around his chest with two yellow striped grenades attached to it.

Around his waist is a black belt with two pouches on each side of his hips.

His pants are in the color of crows.

The hems of the pants are shoved into his black foreleg boots.

He looked like he is precisely 50 ft tall, and she felt like she will faint at that moment on the spot.

But she managed to take it all into her body without losing one inch of the overwhelming feeling.

He seems to be angry about something that happened earlier before she got here because he is gritting his teeth, and his face is in the color of red.

He yelled in a booming voice that sounded gruff and in an American accent, “SCOUT! GET YOUR FUCKIN’ ASS HERE RIGHT NOW!”

She immediately covers her ears with both of her hands, trying to block out the raging screaming from him.

She never ever felt so frightened in her life that she instantly started to shake uncontrollably from head to toe.

Wishing repeatedly to go back to the forest she is running in.

Sincerely expecting this all of this is just a terrible nightmare and wake up on the ground.

In the middle of the forest where she belongs.

Before long, stormed away from the spot where he was standing impatiently, noticing the “Scout” he had called was not coming towards him when called.

He stomped towards another spot; his footsteps rumbled the earth that made her tremble in fear.

She almost collapsed on the ground from each footstep stomped on the ground.

Be glad she was not underneath his feet.

After a minute passed, a person poked his head around from the base’s corner.

He was a thin young man, with light skin color, steel-blue eyes, and chestnut hair from underneath his crow colored hat.

The hat was not covering the back of his head like the familiar people she has met back at her home.

On top of his hat is a headphone, with a mic on the right side of the headphone.

The other piece of the headphone is gone, but he is able to talk through and listen without a problem.

He is wearing a red a short-sleeved shirt, with the bottom of the shirt tucked into his crow colored pants that are shoved into his thigh high, tight white socks and dark sneakers with two white stripes on the side with black shoelaces.

He is presumably the Scout that the scary massive man who is almost standing inches away from her mentioned while shouting out to him.

“What?!” he snapped, sounded annoyed, his voice sounded snarky and American like the other man who required for him. “What da fuck do ya want?!”

He walked up to the other man, looked annoyed as he has his arms crossed over his chest.

“WHERE IS THE FUCKIN’ MEDIC?!” the helmeted man screamed in anger, stomping his foot down on the ground.

She could not help but cover her ears with both of her hands, using the flat palms of her hands.

Blocking the shouting out from between the two of them.

“I don’t know,” the Scout scoffed, shrugging his shoulders.

“‘DON’T KNOW’ MY ASS, WHERE IS HE?!” he screamed again in more anger, this time, he stormed over to him and grabbed the collar of his short-sleeved red shirt with both of his hands, almost lifting him up from the ground.

She jumped in fear when he started getting angry, her face getting red at the minute.

“Well, go tell Hardhat or somethin’! I don’t know jack shit ‘bout where he is!” he said anxiously, trying to get out his fierce grip on his shirt.

“HE’S BUSY LIKE THE REST OF THE FUCKIN’ TEAM!” he yelled, again, almost shaking the Scout like a doll. “DO YOU KNOW WHERE HE IS, MAGGOT! ANSWER ME, GODDAMNIT!”

Both of them got engaged in a heated argument; the Scout shoving him as he continued screaming in his face.

She began leaving the two, slowly walking away from them, although on the verge of tears.

When she is far away from the two, she immediately started to speed up from walking to running.

As soon as she got far away from the two cursing and arguing giants, she sighed and finally stopped for a breath.

She stopped in a covered area where there is shade for her to be protected from both the sun and the two giants.

She inhaled and exhaled as she panted.

Her mouth felt dry from breathing in and out repeatedly from running away from the fierce monster back at home.

She bent down and placed her palms on her knees, taking a moment to get some energy.

After a moment of gathering fresh breaths of air to run again, she looked keenly behind her back at the two arguing giants, shouting at each other, as the Soldier had a hold of his shirt.

Something appeared behind them, looming over them like a giant shadow, which instantly made her gasp in shock.

It was the same robot, but this “machine” has real skin as a modern human, would that be in a light color, and he is bald with no chance of hair.

He is very enormous to her height if she was normal.

But from where she is, the giant is towering above his teammates that are still arguing in front of him.

He is bearing the similarities to the robot version of him, a bullet ammunition belt over his right shoulder, and the dark vest over his red shirt with the same symbols, but instead of the color of orange than yellow.

On his hands are twin black fingerless gloves, and crow colored pants shoved into his dark ankle-high boots.

“Enough!” he scolded, as his enormous hands gripped both of the giants’ heads.

When he gripped their heads, he made them stop their heated argument over a missing medic, as the helmeted man’s hands released the Scout’s shirt.

His voice is deep and loud, but with a thick Russian accent.

Why would a 50-foot tall “robot” say that to them?

Would he instantly kill them on the spot since he has the chance?

“We find doktor by looking. Leetle Scout goes there.” The giant Russian softly spoke, pointing out in the distance to the base’s garage door.

Then he pointed up at a tower.

“Leetle Soldier goes there,” he instructed, as he pointed to the other side of the place.

“Why would da Doc be over there?” the Scout asked, sounding confused.

“That is where keeps bird,” He plainly answered.

“FINE! I’LL GO OVER THERE!” the American fiercely snapped, startling the Scout who jumped.

He is named Soldier, going over to where the Russian pointed earlier.

“And I’ll just go over there where ya said it.” the Scout said, walking in the other direction where the Russian pointed.

After they left, the giant Russian sighed, muttering something in Russian, which luckily Stephanie could not translate, sounding relieved to move the two arguing giant away from each other, but still annoyed.

He walked over to a different place, leaving her alone in the middle of nowhere.

She had never felt this confused and scared before.

What happened to her while she was knocked out?

She carefully walked away from the spot she was standing and went into the empty plain, without anyone noticing her.

At that moment, the speakers turned on, and she jolted out from her skin, startled by the ear-piercing static of the speakers.

She covered her ears again to block the noises out as it rang.

“ _Mission begins in 10 seconds._ ” a mysterious voice suddenly informed, through the speakers. “ _Mission begins in 10 seconds._ ”

She winced in fear, scared that someone or something might kill her in 10 seconds!

She started running for cover, frantically looking around to hide.

“ _5, 4, 3, 2,_ ” the mysterious voice counted, counting down to zero. “ _1\. Begin!_ ”

After the voice stopped counting down the time, the ground started shaking again, causing her to wobble around, trying to regain her balance.

She squeaked in fear as she wobbled side to side, startled at the sudden movement of the ground.

She ran over to an enormous rock and carefully hid behind it.

Guns fired in random directions, the ground shook as footsteps ran in different directions and loud screams echoed through the air.

She peeked around the corner of where she is hiding, seeing splatters of blood landed on the ground along with pieces of organs.

She almost gagged at the sight of the gore and blood.

The girl had never ever felt this scared in her life.

In the distance, she heard something getting closer to her, so she quickly scrambled up to her feet and ran away from her hiding spot.

The female noticed a corner, in between concrete and wood and sighed in slight relief.

She ran towards the corner, looking out for incoming bullets, feet, or organs.

When she reached the corner and tried climbing up along the wall by hooking her fingers on the cracks.

But it was too smooth for her fingers to hook onto anything.

She whimpered in fear and turned around to the fight, wondering if there is somewhere else to hide instead of this spot.

A giant shadow suddenly loomed over her, as she was thinking to herself about a new spot to hide.

She instantly froze in her spot, as she slowly glanced up at what is in front of her.

Standing in front of her is the same giant Russian that split the two arguing giants from quarreling over a missing medic.

But she is lucky that he is facing back first against her.

Before she could walk away from the giant Russian, a sudden shot of a scattergun echoed through the air, scaring her, as she jumped 5 inches from the ground.

After the sudden scattergun gunshot, he started toppling backward, while dropping a large gun to the ground.

She scrambled away from the toppling giant, as he landed backward, inches away from her body.

A large hole was left on his chest, revealing some of his organs that are bleeding out, as well as a missing heart.

She quietly gagged to herself, as she covered her mouth with her right hand.

But she held in her gag as she inhaled deeply.

At that moment, she tried moving one of her legs to step over the corpse, but she was pinned to the corner by his arm!

She gasped and placed her hands on the corpse’s enormous arm, feeling the cold of death rating from him.

The female tried pushing the arm with her strength to get some room to get out, but he was too large for her to move his arm.

She groaned in slight annoyance and in fear and was going to try once more to move the corpse again from her body until she heard footsteps again.

They were sharp, but light footsteps and they also sounded like they are in a hurry too.

Terrified, she sharply gasped, as the pupils of her eyes went slightly inward, as her heart beats faster.

Another giant is coming towards her!

She frantically tried to squirm out of her spot, trying to get out of the corner until the footsteps got closer and stopped in front of the corpse.

She fearfully glanced up from looking down at the corpse that was carefully pinning her to the corner and saw another enormous man.

This man has short and smooth jet black hair, that is lightly graying of the modern age that he is going through on the sides of his sideburns at the ears, steel-blue eye color, and fair skin color.

He is wearing a light gray coat that reaches down to his ankles and has orange logos shaped in a plus symbol from where she is.

Since he is facing the other way, which is sideways, she could see a bit of detail on him.

Underneath his coat, she could see a white undershirt beneath his long doctor jacket and a red tie, along with a pair of red rubber gloves that almost reaches to his elbows and small round glasses.

He was also wearing a crow colored pants shoved into a pair of black boots that are up to his mid-leg.

The giant man is a doctor, to her own fear.

She always fears doctors since she was a baby.

She fondly remembered her mother once told her she was wrapped in a blanket to be warm from being cold.

Her mother told her she was traumatized by this while she was left in there for a long time.

As she was staring at the doctor, she did not notice that the corpse of the giant Russian disappeared into thin air, allowing her to move from her spot.

But she did not move from her spot as she was stuck there, staring fearfully at the giant medic.

He was staring in the distance, not even noticing a tiny human in the corner, shaking from head to toe while staring at him with fear in the eyes.

He seems to only stare out in the opening, not doing anything or yelling out anything to anyone on the other side of the wall.

After a while of staring out in the distance, as he stood there perfectly still, without even looking at her.

Suddenly, both of them heard a loud bang noise, as it was coming from the right-hand side of where she is standing at, as it came from in front of the giant medic.

The loud and sudden noise startled her as she jumped.

She flinched from the noise, as he sighed, sounding irritated.

He lifted his right hand up to his face and placed it on the right side of his temple, gently stroking it with his fingers as he looked annoyed.

While his left hand was holding the nozzle of the machine on his back.

“Zhis team…” he groaned.

His voice is deep and masculine but thick with a German accent.

She leaned a bit out to the side, noticing he did not see her in the corner.

When she glanced in front of her, she noticed that the giant Russian somehow disappeared into thin air, and she could finally move!

So, she decided to take the risk of either getting caught or accidentally killed.

About to move any of her legs, she only got down to her bottom, because she does not feel confident of getting up to her feet.

Before she could move any of arms to crab crawl away, she accidentally pushed a rock to the side, making a soft crunch noise.

She mentally winced in fear when she heard the noise from the rock, praying quietly to herself.

But, he eventually heard the noise.

He glanced over at where she is, as she froze in her spot, only on her bottom and her legs out in front of her.

He only took one stare at her, before glancing away from her, out in the distance.

Did he catch a glimpse of her?

The answer is yes.

He took another look at her, with a slightly puzzled look on his face, as she quietly squeaked in fear.

She tried making herself small against the corner she is against, scooting closer, her knees up to her neck.

His steel-blue eyes widen in shock to see someone smaller than him, undoubtedly sitting in front of him, all hunched up against a corner.

His glasses only fell off his nose a bit to the tip, until he reached over with his right hand to his glasses and gently pushed them back into place with his first finger, still gazing at her for a moment.

She is terrified she was being stared at by a doctor because of how small she is.

Vivid visions of her being snatched from the ground and used for an experiment haunted her memory, causing her to look away from the staring medic, looking down at her knees up to her face.

She repeatedly wished she is back at home, dreaming a horrible dream she is trapped in.

Daringly, she glanced over at the giant medic, hoping he was not still staring at her.

But, he was still staring at her, as she whimpered a bit to herself.

After a moment of staring, he shook his head side to side and glanced once again away from her, causing her to be confused about what he is doing.

He is ignoring what he saw sitting before him.

He glanced away from her and put the nozzle of the machine over his back, like how a Ghostbuster would in one of the movies.

The Medic reached up to his small round glasses with both of his hands and took them off of his nose bridge, looking at them thoughtfully, if there are dirt or fingerprints on from him.

After a while of looking at the lenses of his glasses, he placed them back on his face.

Then, he placed his two fingers of his right hand against his temple, looking confused for a moment as he thought to himself.

She could not move in her spot, as she stared at the giant medic not sure of herself to either move or to stay put.

He glanced back at her to the side, gazing thoughtfully at her.

She curled more into her small ball to hide away from him.

At that moment, he sighed and turned his body around from the battle, to her as she jumped.

When he got close enough to her, he slowly knelt on one knee, as she was uncontrollably shaking from head to toe.

She placed her right arm on top of her head, as she wrapped her left arm around her legs, curling into a somewhat fetal position.

She glanced away from him for a moment, before glancing up at him, noticing how huge he was up close.

The girl did not know how to react since she only froze in her spot, just shaking from head to toe.

They were staring at each other for a moment, and she is thinking of what he is going to do to her and how is she going to get out of this big mess?

After a moment of staring at each other, he suddenly reached over to her with his right hand to grab her.

She could not help herself, but to cry out in fear from the sudden movement of his hand.

She quickly closed her eyes for the sudden grab, glancing away in fear.

Sincerely hoping all of this will end.

But, she did not feel anything touch her body.

Not even a single digit from both of his hands.

She glanced up in slight confusion and concern, noticing she was not off the ground.

She glanced back at the doctor and noticed he was not gazing at her, but at something else than her.

The girl glanced over to where his hand is and noticed he instead grabbed a beetle that was going towards her.

To her shock, it was precisely the size of a dog.

When she was almost at his size, bugs were just bug-sized.

He flung it away from her to the side.

She watched as the beetle landed on its back, before going back up to its legs and ran away from the both.

She glanced back up at him, still shaking as he wiped his hand on his pants, brushing the dirt off his hand.

After he wiped his hand on his pants, he carefully placed his right hand back on the ground for support.

He leaned his body a little, for a closer look of her and noticed her shaking uncontrollably, so, he slightly tilted his head in confusion.

Before he could say something to her, he and the girl overheard a loud voice, thick with a Scottish accent called out, “MEDIC!”

He glanced over his shoulder, gazing out the plain, his eyes glancing side to side for the source of the voice.

She was still petrified with fear as she is still is in her place.

Her arm over her head and wrapped around her legs, curling into a slightly small ball.

Worried about the giant doctor deciding to hurt her.

He glanced back at her, and she jumped when he glanced back at her.

To her own fear, he reached over with both hands this time, he gently scooped the frightened girl with his right hand from the ground.

He moved his left hand behind her back, making a protective wall for her to be safe for the trip up.

She was still shaking in fear when he suddenly reached over to her with both of his hands.

So, she tried moving away from his hands, turning his body towards him as he reaches for her.

He gently scooped her up in his palm, as she squeaked loudly in startlement and fear.

She has her hands on top of his palm as her back was against her other hand, creating a wall for her to be protected.

He slowly moves his hands up towards his chest, up high in the air off the ground.

As she was getting up into the air, she tightly gripped the rubber of his gloves in fear.

Worried about being dropped to the ground if a single mistake of moving his hands too fast.

His fingers slightly curled in towards her body, to protect her from falling off his hands.

When he lifted her up to his chest level, he started to get up to his feet from kneeling down on the ground.

She began hyperventilating quietly in fear, but her grip on the rubber of his glove underneath her tightened.

When he got up to his full height, while still carefully carrying the little girl in his hands, she felt like she is up in a really tall roller coaster, getting ready to go down the next hill.

He observed in his surroundings for a moment, checking for anyone else like his team members or someone else than his team members.

She glanced around too, now seeing things easier than being down on the ground.

But she still does not trust the people around in the field.

He moved his left hand from behind her back and gently pulled back the pocket on the left-hand side of his chest.

He carefully slipped her into his breast pocket as he heard a soft and startled squeak escaped from her but muffled when she entered the pocket.

After he had carefully placed her in his chest pocket of his coat, he gently stroked his fingers on her back, feeling her shaking form.

Then, he reached over his shoulder to his machine backpack on his back.

He pulled out the nozzle to the machine and placed his right hand on the handle.

“MEDIC!” The same Irish man’s voice called on the right.

He glanced over at where the voice is coming from, as the girl inside his pocket curled more down to the bottom.

“MEDIC!” the voice called again.

“All right! I’m coming!” he called back to the Irish man, as he quickly ran over to where the voice is coming from.

He watched out for any incoming missiles because he does not want to hurt her since she is with him.

After an hour of fighting, she listened anxiously to the loud yelling, guns firing in different directions and the shrill cries of pain.

A couple of times, she could smell the smell of copper, which sometimes make her cover her nose with her right hand.

She does not feel sick as she was inside his pocket, although she sometimes grips the surrounding fabric a couple of times nervously of being tossed out on accident.

“ _You won!_ ” was through the speakers after the woman behind the microphone declared the announcement.

He sighed gently in relief and placed the nozzle of his machine over his shoulder.

Gently placing his fingertips against the girl’s back, he could feel the girl inside his chest pocket, shaking uncontrollably in fear from something that happened earlier.

He thought to himself for a moment about why she is frightened as he walked back into the base, removing his fingers from her back.

He recognized something when he entered the base.

She is frightened of him because of his height and the dangerous things he could do to her if he wants to.

He winced in annoyance when he is alone.

His apparent lack of knowledge of her and her new surroundings.

He sighed gently, as he placed a hand on his forehead.

“Ich bin ein Idiot,” he softly mumbled in German, sounding annoyed at himself.

He entered a room while following with the rest of his team members.

The room has lockers against a wall at the left-hand side of the entrance.

In the middle of the room is a metal bench, as there is a couch on the right-hand side of the room.

They took their weapons out and placed them in their lockers.

But after cleaning some dirt and blood off them before they placed them inside.

He walked over to the farthest locker and opened it, placing his weapons inside after the fight.

He took off the backpack from his back and placed it in the locker, taking off the weapons and objects he carries with him.

As he was tidying up, he kept feeling the girl trembling in his pocket, so he finished cleaning off the dirt from one of his weapons.

He closed his locker after putting the last object inside, and walked away from the locker room, entering into a long hallway.

As he wandered through the hallway, he looked around for anyone else with him and sighed gently.

He stopped walking in the middle of the hallway and with his right hand, he reached into his right chest pocket.

He heard her whimper in fear as she scrambled to the bottom of the pocket, desperately trying to get away from his fingers.

Patiently, he reached more into his pocket, until he brushed his digits over her backpack on her back.

He gently pinched her backpack, not too much to destroy the things inside from his strength.

He hoisted her out of his pocket as she limped, looking terrified to squirm around to escape from him.

The Medic lifted her up to his face, as her backpack is gently pinched between his first finger and thumb.

She looked absolutely frightened when she was in front of his face and curled more into a small ball, staring back at him.

Worriedly thinking that she is perfect for an experiment or worse, for something to eat since he has not eaten anything for breakfast.

He glanced all over her body for a moment with his eyes, recognizing some scrapes on her elbows and knees.

There were cuts on her hands from falling onto her knees from running from something and a bruise on the right side of her temple.

He was silent for a moment as he stared back at her eyes, as she gasped and glanced away, looking down at the ground.

She felt like she is being held over the side of a skyscraper by the back of her sweater.

Her stomach twists nervously from the thought of being dropped to the ground.

Then, he placed her back into his chest pocket, hearing a shaky sigh from her.

He continued walking through the hallway, heading towards a room.

As for her, she was still shaking from head to toe, but she did not make a ruckus from inside.

She was quiet to hear the lullaby of his beating heartbeat.

She felt quite amazed at how huge his heart might be.

After a while of walking, he stopped in front of a pair of doors, and opened it, entering a Medic Bay.

The Medic Bay is filled with medical drip bag holders, medical curtains to cover the patients and some beds for the patients to lay on top of.

There were tables for him to place his surgery tools on top of too, and there was a desk in a far corner.

He walked over to a metal counter and reached back into his chest pocket and this time, lightly wrapped his fingers around her waist instead of her backpack.

The Medic gently pulled her out of his pocket and placed her onto the counter, as she collapsed onto her bottom.

“Vait right here,” he kindly spoke, breaking the ice between the both of them.

He saw her jolt from the sudden sound of his voice, sounding unusually calm and gentle.

She glanced over her shoulder to him, looking worried, but trusting towards him.

He is trying assuring her that he is not an actual killing machine that she saw or heard from inside his chest pocket.

“I’m just going to get some medical bandages for jour vounds,” he spoke again, mentioning to her scrapes.

She glanced away from him for a moment, thinking to herself about her trust towards him.

Then she glanced back up at him, slowly nodding her head.

He understood she is slowly trusting him, deciding not to force her.

He turned his back around towards her and headed in the direction of a cabinet in the distance.

As he was opening some cabinets, she glanced around at her surroundings, looking at the x-rays of one of the team members, and noticing there is a missile in his body.

She shivered slightly at the thought of having a missile inside of her.

Feeling the bruise on the side of her head, she thought about what she landed on top of.

Maybe it could be a sharp piece of metal?

If it could be that, she could have been dead for a long time.

She glanced back over at the Medic, noticing he opened the third cabinet.

Inside the cabinet is two jars.

The first jar is filled with cotton balls, and the second jar is filled with Q-tips.

He took out the jars of Q-tips and cotton balls and closed the cabinet door.

After collecting the jars, he opens the next cabinet door.

There were many bottles inside from the bottom to the top of the shelves.

Some bottles were empty, as some were filled with different liquids inside.

He took out a bottle filled with hydrogen peroxide from one of the shelves and placed it down on the counter.

She was quiet while watching him as he collected some things to mend people when they are injured.

Until she felt like she is being watched.

Glancing over to her left side, she went face to face with a gas-masked figure, staring at her from the table, as the chin is on top of the surface.

“Mmph?” the masked figure muffled in confusion when it noticed she was staring at it.

She screamed out in fear at the sight of the gas-masked figure and scrambled backward.

The Medic jumped from the sudden scream and whipped around to see what she screamed about, just to notice the gas-masked figure, now does not have its chin against the counter.

It is wearing a black gas mask, a red jumpsuit with orange symbols at the forearms in the shape of a flame and wearing black suspender straps on top of the shoulders and black gloves with yellow tips of the fingers and around the rim of the glove and over the chest is a belt and black combat boots.

“Pyro!” he exclaimed, scolding at the masked figure. “Don’t do zhat to her! Jou might accidentally hurt her on accident.”

The Pyro, the gas-masked figure’s name, circled their head around to him and muffled, “Mrrdrr, mhh mhmh mh mh?”

The doctor sighed gently in slight annoyance and answered the muffled question, “I found her en an empty corner vhere I vas standing earlier. Luckily I found her before anyone else did.”

The Pyro gave out an “mmh” that sounded in acknowledgment about his explanation.

It glanced back at the terrified girl as she jolted from the black “eyes” staring down at her.

“Mrrdrr? Mhh mhh mhmh mh mhh?” the Pyro muffled again, as the figure pointed at her, making her feel nervous about the pointing.

“She vas like zhis vhen I noticed her,” he explained, answering to their question, taking out some cotton balls and some Q-tips. “I am not sure of how she came here like zhis, but I could mend her vounds.”

“Mhh.” the Pyro muffled again, removing the pointing digit from her.

She is relieved to be not pointed at but still feels uncomfortable of the staring from them.

The doors of the Medic Bay suddenly opened, revealing to be the same Scout from before.

“Yo Doc, I…” he trailed off when he took the first glance at her, then a second glance back at her after his mind quickly went back to the subject of a tiny person on the counter.

He noticed her sitting on the counter in front of the distracted Pyro who was staring at her with a nervous and worried look underneath the mask.

She looked uncomfortable as she was not staring back at them.

She was quiet for a moment, not even noticing the curious Scout right behind the Pyro.

Before she could look up at the Pyro, something grabbed her right leg, lifted up into the air, as she gave out a terrified scream.

She was hanging upside down, as her backpack was luckily on the counter, from her taking it off when the doctor was getting medical supplies for her to mend her wounds.

Before she could say something, she was lifted up in front of a pair of steel-blue eyes.

She froze in fear as she only squeaked, feeling her heart beat faster.

Unfortunately, the pair of steel-blue eyes belong to the same Scout she saw earlier with the other man who was shouting fiercely at him.

He has her right leg gently pinched between his first finger and thumb on his right hand.

“Yo Doc, where didja find her?” he asked, causing her to jump from the sudden noise of his voice.

“Hmm? Ach!” the doctor’s voice exclaimed to the other side when he noticed the Scout holding her in his fingers.

Then, his red-gloved rubber hand quickly reached over to the Scout’s left ear and pinched harshly between his first finger and thumb.

“Vhat are jou zhinking?!” he exclaimed fiercely in anger. “Jou do not hold her by her leg!”

“Ow! Doc!” he exclaimed in pain, accidentally releasing his grip on her leg.

As the Scout released her leg, she was plunged to the ground as she felt her heart stopped from the sudden drop.

Expecting to hit the ground harshly, she was caught by something leathery underneath her back.

She sat up in the mysterious feeling and glanced over her shoulder to see the same enormous guy that she noticed earlier.

She thought her heart stopped at the sight of the giant Russian, who died right in front of her on the battlefield.

How did he return to the living?

He was kneeling down on one knee, and his right hand was underneath her as a rescue platform for her to be safe on top instead of landing on the ground to her death, as his left is on the ground, as a pillar for his balance.

She felt slightly protected in his enormous hand, instead of crashing towards the ground, sending her to her imminent death.

But she is still worried he might kill her.

After she had been caught with his enormous hand, he slowly and carefully stood up to his height.

He is much taller than the Medic’s height as she curled closer in the middle of the giant's palm, terrified of falling over on an accident.

He shouted fiercely, which startled her as she jumped.

“Enough!” he loudly bellowed, scaring everyone in the Medic Bay.

The Pyro, Medic and the Scout glanced at him after they both had finished their argument.

He glanced down at the terrified stiffened girl in his palm, now with both of her hands on top of her head, shaking uncontrollably from head to toe.

She was crying silently to herself as her shoulders twitch every time she sniffs.

She is terrified of this situation she is in, frightened that she might be pulled into it too between the both of them.

“Look at poor lettle mouse. Scared to death because you babies,” he spoke, gazing at her with a concerned look in his eyes.

“Maybe she’s scared of ya instead.” the Scout sneered, before wincing when the Medic’s grip on his ear tightened.

“No, she es scared of jou because of jour lack of carefulness!” the Medic angrily snapped.

“I was just curious ‘bout her!” the Scout whined, trying to get his ear back from his fingers, as the mark of where his fingers are is turning purple.

The Russian growled aggressively at both of them as they stopped arguing.

The Medic ignored the Scout’s protests and finally released the Scout’s ear, as he mumbled a curse underneath his breath, rubbing his ear tenderly with his hand.

With both of his hands, he gently scooped her out of the enormous giant’s palm, as she flinched by the softness of his hands from underneath his gloves.

She felt relieved to be out of the giant Russian’s palm and felt more comfortable in the Medic’s hands.

Even though she is still scared of medics.

She was worried to be accidentally squished by him if not careful or by his anger if the argument has not died down by his warnings.

“Herr Scout, zhat vas, not a correct vay to pick her up vhen jou vanted to see her again next time jou see her.” the Medic replied politely, as he gently placed her against his chest as if he is carrying an adorable puppy in his hands.

She gripped his coat with both of her hands, as she moved her head against his chest as if she wanted to hide away from everyone.

“Now, ef jou don’t mind, I have some tending to do vith her vounds, before sending her back to zhe home zhat she lives en. Her parents might be vorried about her being missing.” the Medic sighed, moving his hands into a better position than the first one he was holding her in.

The enormous Russian nodded his head thoughtfully, agreeing with him.

“Letting her go?” the Scout asked. “What if we did not know anything about her parents. What if-”

“Now, Scout.” the Medic snapped, glaring at him, as she flinched from the sound of his voice.

The Scout was going to say something to retaliate the order when the Russian wrapped his arm around him and left the Medic Bay.

All except the Pyro, who is stubborn to leave the Medic Bay without knowing if she is okay or not.

“Jou too Herr Pyro,” he replied, as he was going to pull her away from his chest when he noticed that she has a grip on his coat.

So, he stopped himself from impatiently trying to get her off his chest, and waited for her to calm down.

The Pyro gave out a muffled, “Mmh…” as a protest against his order, but sighed, giving in.

They stood up on their feet and shuffled out of the Medic Bay, following after the two other people who left earlier.

He sighed gently in slight annoyance after he had heard the Medic Bay’s doors closed behind their back, mumbling something in German.

Luckily, she does not know what he said in his language.

Noticing that he was waiting for her to release his coat, she shakily released his jacket, before grabbing both of her trembling hands together, to stop herself from shaking.

He felt concerned about her since the way she is shaking, and not looking at him as she looks at her hands, before wincing when her fingertips brushed a scratch behind her hand.

Remembering what he was doing earlier before the Scout came into the Medic Bay, he placed her back down on the same table where the Pyro was at, staring creepily at her.

She gently landed right next to her backpack, as she curled up into a ball, slightly hiding from the Medic.

He turned back around to her and politely asked, “Could jou pull up jour sleeves und pant legs? I’m guessing zhat jou went zhrough some pricker bushes und rocks vhen jou vere running.”

A confused look appeared on her face, before glancing at her hands, noticing visible scratches from her fingertips to the bottom of her palm, and bleeding a bit.

She glanced back at him and shakily nodded her head, trying not to anger him.

So being careful with her injuries, she carefully and slightly painfully pulled up her sleeves, revealing small cuts on her arms, along with some visible bruises on some areas where she collided with some of the rocks.

There were scrapes on her legs, as she tugged her blue jean pant legs up.

After she pulled her up her pant legs and sleeves, he stuck a cotton ball pinched from a pair of tweezers and dipped the tip of the ball into the hydrogen peroxide.

When the cotton ball had soaked a bit of the hydrogen peroxide from inside the bottom, he took the cotton ball out and reached over to her with his left hand.

She backed up in fear when he reaches over to her with his left hand, worried he might do something worse to her like than what the other half of the team members did to her.

He stopped when he noticed her moving away from his hand.

Instead of getting angry at her and force her to get close to him, he instead curled his fingers around her body, not trap her like a bug.

She felt scared as he gently moved his fingers inward, but she repeatedly told herself mentally that he would not do any harm to her.

As his fingers finished curled around her, she moved in the middle of his palm, trying not to get near his fingers.

“Could jou perhaps move jour right arm out?” he politely asked, as she glanced up at him.

Nodding her head, she shakily moved her right arm out, her palm down.

Using the tip of the cotton ball, he lightly tapped the scrapes on her arm, as she gently hissed to herself from the gentle stinging.

But, she relaxed as he cleaned her wounds.

She felt calm she is getting mended up with medical treatments, luckily is not using syringes.

She shivers to herself at the memory of syringes.

The girl watched as the Medic gently touched her wounds with the tip of the cotton ball.

After he was finished cleaning the scrapes on her right arm, she lifts her left arm out, as he did the same thing to her arm.

When he is done with her left arm, he did the same thing with her legs, although she is sheepish about the feeling.

After her wounds were done with the hydrogen peroxide, he places the bottle down on a different area of the counter.

He reaches over to a small roll of white fabric bandages and picks it up, along with a single gauze pad.

Being careful as he can, the Medic first places the tiny gauze pads down on the visible wounds on her arms, as she held her arm out still.

Although shaken a bit from what she went through.

He gently wraps the fabric bandage around over the gauze pads on her arms, without tightening it too tight.

After he had mended her, she merely had her arms covered than her face, even her palms and the back of her hands too.

Her legs were covered in bandages too only from the ankle to her knees.

The bruise on the side of her head was not covered by bandages, but hidden underneath her hair.

She reaches up to her sleeves that she has gently pulled up by his polite ask and pulls them down, covering the bandages.

She did the same thing to her pant legs, covering the bandages the Medic had gently wrapped on her.

“Zhere, now zhat jou are mended vithout any procedures nor stitches,” he replied, as he stood up fully from kneeling down to mend her wounds.

She winced and shivered in fear when he mentioned “stitches.”

He noticed her cringing from the mention of “stitches,” and decided to change the object about her medical condition during the procedure.

The Medic pulled back a drawer of his desk and pulled out a small knitted blanket that someone has made for him.

The blanket is in the color of white, as there were small medic symbols decorated on it.

He gently gave the small blanket to her as if it is a shock blanket to help her to calm down from her shock.

She took the blanket from him and wrapped it around her body, hugging it close to her body as she shook.

After she took the blanket from him, he stood back up from kneeling down slightly.

Reaching over to a different area of the counter, he picked up a clipboard with a pencil laid across the top of a blank piece of paper clipped to it.

She felt confused as she watches him walk back to her, standing in front of her, as he has the pencil in his right hand.

He politely asked, “Please give me jour address to jour home und Miss Pauling vill take jou back home.”

She was silent for a moment, glancing away from his gaze, still worried and slightly concerned about his trust towards her.

But not only that, she looked rather sad too.

He got curious and oddly, slightly concerned for her condition in the state she is in.

“Are jou still traumatized?” he asked, deciding to ask something else than to push her over the edge of being comfortable.

She was going to say something to him about what happened earlier before she was somehow teleported here, but, she stopped herself, and only nodded her head, sadly answering to his question about her condition instead of her address to her home.

He sighed gently after she quietly had answered his question.

“Unfortunately jou have to stay here until jou are fully cured to tell me zhe address of jour home, zhen,” he replied gently, as he set the clipboard back down on the counter, right next to her. “I’ll be very certain zhat jou are perfectly safe here, und no one else vhould hurt jou.”

She was silent for a moment from his explanations, glancing away from him, before glancing back up at him, nodding her head again, agreeing with him.

After receiving the message from her, he turned his back around to her and walked out of the doors of the Medic Bay, opening one of them, and closed the door behind his back.

After she is left alone in the Medic Bay, she felt curious about why he looked concerned about her, and a little revealed that he is gone.

Lucky that he did not use any needles on her to numb her wounds that would sting a bit.

Outside the Medic Bay, the Medic explained the problems with his patient that she is cured of her wounds, but not fully cured to go back home.

And explained she has to stay here for a while until she is ready to go back.

The Scout sighed in slight annoyance and concern.

“So, you’re sayin’ she’s gunna stay here for a while until she’s fully cured?” he explained in his own words, repeating what the Medic said before.

The Russian placed his right hand on his clean-shaven head, thinking to himself about the Medic’s concerns of his tiny patient.

“How da fuck are we gunna take care of a freakin’ girl, even though we are freakin’ giants compared to her?!” the Scout exclaimed.

“Then we be careful with tiny mouse,” the Russian replied, in broken English.

“Even though she is gunna walk around her like she gives a crap about what’s gunna happen ‘round here?” the Scout snapped.

The Medic sighed in slight annoyance and calmly replied, “Ve keep an eye out for her en case she es around here zhen. Ve don’t vant to make her more traumatized zhan now.”

All three was quiet for a moment, before the Pyro muffled, “Mhh mhmh mhh mhh?”

“Zhe rest of zhe team?” the Medic replied curiously, translating what the Pyro asked him.

“We will tell them too.” The Russian replied, answering the Pyro’s question for the Medic.

The Pyro looked slightly relieved, but beyond the lenses of the gas mask, they looked uneasy and concerned about her being alone by herself.

Back in the Medic Bay, the girl was waiting patiently for the Medic to come back for any other wounds or anything that she did not notice, as she was shaking slightly to herself from the encounter of the war.

Minutes pass and the Medic did not show up, so she felt concerned and nervous.

Has he forgotten all about her in the Medic Bay?

Half of her wants to leave, while the other half wants to stay put and wait for him to come back.

But the wants-to-leave side is more dominant than the other half, so, she shakily stood up from the table, with the small knitted blanket on her back.

She glanced down at it, with a curious look on her face, before sighing, knowing she has to stay here at the base.

She folded the small knitted blanket in where it was earlier and placed it down on the counter, letting the Medic keep it.

After folding the blanket, she picked up the backpack from the counter, she took off earlier and placed it on her back.

After she put her backpack on, she glanced over the side of the counter, noticing how tall it is and how she would break a leg.

That would make the Medic more annoyed and have to mend her again from her broken leg.

She glanced to her left and noticed one of the medical drip bag holders was near the counter, just inches away from where she was.

Walking over to the medical drip bag holder, she glanced down at the ground, shivering to herself of falling down to the ground if she accidentally slips.

Placing her hand on the holder, she wraps her arm around it, until she wraps her body around it, getting ready to slide down.

Releasing her grip a bit, she slides down the pole, as she eases herself down.

When she reaches the ground, she jumped off the pole, landing on the ground on her hands and feet.

She winced slightly from the pain in her palms.

After she had landed on the ground, she glanced up at the counter over her head.

It was way up in the air.

Then, she glanced over at the Medic Bay's doors, thinking to herself about the Medic.

A sad look came across her face, as she sighed gently.

Turning her back around from the door, she glanced around her surroundings.

She noticed a hole in the far corner of the room, looked to be exactly her size.

She walked over to the hole at the far side of the room, walking over to the corner and glanced inside.

The hallway down there was dark, but not too dark to make her feel uneasy about it.

She took off her backpack from her back and set it down on the ground, kneeling down in front of it.

Unzipping the zipper, she reached into the backpack with both of her hands and rummaging through it to look for something inside.

After a couple of minutes of rummaging through her backpack, she pulled out two white armbands with velcro elastic black leather bands and the symbol of an army group on opposite sides.

She carefully peeled the velcro off of the bands and carefully places them over the sleeves of her sweater, up to her forearms, and tightened the velcro, so that they both would not fall off while walking through the dark hallway in the wall.

After she placed them on her arms, she zips her backpack up from being open and put it back on her back.

She presses the black buttons at the end of her armlets, and they turned on after the click.

The color of the glow is a luminous red color.

The glowing from the armlets is shining down the darkness of the hallway through the hole.

Before she could go into the hallway in the hole, she glances over her shoulder, to the Medic Bay’s doors, thinking to herself about the team members.

After a moment of thinking to herself, she glanced back at the dark hallway, sighing gently to herself.

She slowly entered the hole and disappeared into the darkness, as the light that shines her way fades away.

After she had disappeared into the hole in the wall, the Medic Bay’s doors opened, revealing to be the Pyro.

When they noticed she is gone, they muffled a soft, “Mhh…” as if they were sad that she had left the Medic Bay.

They turned back around to the Medic Bay’s doors, gently closing the doors behind their backs, leaving the room in silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	2. Chapter 1: The Scout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie was hiding from one of the RED team members until she got caught...

After a week has passed since the first encounter of the medic that found her, the tiny girl has been hiding in the walls for a long time.

Sometimes she would avoid people walking down the hallway, or listen to their conversations from behind the walls.

She wants to trust them since the first time she encountered them and talk to them.

However, she does not feel like it is ready to talk to them.

Not ready to fully trust them.

So, she continued hiding behind the walls, avoiding people and listen to their conversations.

After a while of listening to their conversations, she could tell from one’s voice that they are a completely different person than what she expected.

She also overheard their names, so she knows some of their names, but not all to remember.

At nighttime, she sleeps at the spot she stops at and waits until morning comes.

Figuratively speaking, until the Soldier wakes up and blows his military horn to wake the people up.

It annoys people, but it does not bother her.

It feels like home to her.

But now, she is in a dilemma.

She was out adventuring in the garage, wondering what could be inside to look around.

To her own feeling, she feels like she is in a giant museum filled with different and gigantic objects to gaze up at.

When she heard something come in the garage, she quickly ran for a hiding spot, only to notice a space in between two crates.

So, she hid in between the crates, hiding away from the giant person coming into the garage.

When the person came into the garage, it was the Scout, as he was glancing around, sighing to himself.

In his right hand, he is carrying a baseball, as the bat for the baseball was missing.

She is lucky he did not notice that she is hiding or in the garage with him.

He walked the other side of the crates, as she watched him walk, peeking out slightly out of her hiding spot.

The Scout laid down on the couch in the back of the garage on his back, as his legs laid on top of the couch's arm to the left, as his head was resting on the other couch's arm.

His left hand was resting on his stomach, as his other hand was tossing his baseball up in the air and catching it with his hand.

Since their first encounter in the Medic Bay, she imagines herself as the ball he is using in his hand, flinging her up in the air, catching her repeatedly, until she gets sick or wounded.

She shivers in fear from the imagination, forcefully pushing the thought away from her mind.

Glancing back up at the Scout, she noticed he was busy focusing on his ball than her, so she feels safe to go back to the hole she found.

But if she goes out in the opening, she would get caught by him in the corner of his eye.

So, she does not know if she should either move or stay put.

While she is patiently waiting for him to leave the garage, the summer wind from the open garage door started gently blowing into the room, causing the dust underneath her feet to kick up.

She sniffed some dust that made her allergies kicked in slightly, to make her sneeze, loud enough that he can hear it from the other side of the room.

“Achoo!” She loudly sneezed.

She gasped in fear and quickly covered her mouth with both of her hands, along with her nose.

She had accidentally made a loud noise.

The Scout stopped throwing his ball in the air after he had caught it in his right hand.

Her stomach clenches in fear as she moved deeper into the darkness in between the crates.

He had heard her sneeze!

The Scout sat up from his spot, glancing around for the source of the noise, as she hid, wishing that he did not see her.

He luckily did not see her in her hiding spot, as he glanced around.

Shrugging to himself, he laid back down on the couch, continuing to toss his baseball into the air and catching it repeatedly.

As for the frightened girl, she is relieved that he did not catch her, removing her hands from her nose and mouth.

Until she felt another sneeze coming.

Panicking, she tried containing her sneeze with her hands, but she sneezed again, except louder than the first one, without her hands covering her mouth.

“Achoo!” She loudly sneezed again.

He heard the sneeze again and caught the baseball in his right hand.

The Scout sat up from his spot and glanced around again.

This time he felt suspicious about the sneeze.

He turned his body around on the couch, as his feet were on the ground, standing up to his height.

She hid more into her spot as she watches him get up from the couch.

When he got up to his feet, he placed the baseball down on the table right next to the couch, as it stayed perfectly still in its spot.

As the Scout was glancing around to seek for the hidden person, she hid deeper into her spot, hoping he did not notice her hiding in between the crates.

But as she moved, he noticed the sudden change in the dust from between the crates in the left-hand side of the room’s corner.

He frowned slightly to himself, thinking it is a mouse hiding in between those crates or someone tinier than him.

The Scout walked over to the crates and soundlessly jumped on the box on the left-hand side.

After he jumped on the left crate, he waited patiently for the mouse to pop out from between the boxes and catch it with his hands.

As for the girl, she was busy recovering from her last sneeze to notice the Scout was right next to her on top one of the boxes on her left-hand side.

So, she absent-mindedly stepped out from among the boxes and into the opening.

After she stepped out into the opening, she was about to take off her backpack to get the tissues out, when something moved in front of her as she froze in her spot.

A shadow loomed over her, as she stopped in her spot, her right hand on her backpack strap to take her backpack off.

Frantic thoughts popped in her head to look up at who is in front of her, or to run away from the figure.

So, she bravely glanced up to recognize who or what it is standing in front of her.

When she looked up, she encountered a curious Scout that unexpectedly came closer to her instead of the couch, gazing down at her as he was, crouching down to see her closer, as he was standing on top of the crates.

And it was the same Scout she had met back in the Medic Bay.

She yelped in fear when she noticed the Scout in front of her and scrambled back in between the boxes.

When she ran inside, he quickly got down from the crates and went down to his knees while his left hand was on the ground, flat-palmed.

He reached through the small gap between the crates with his right arm and quickly grabbed her backpack on her back.

She yelped out again as she stopped, her feet dragging against the ground, as she was yanked back.

From behind her back, she could feel the Scout's middle finger against her back, as his entire palm was gently wrapped around her backpack.

He did not use too much strength to crush the objects inside her backpack.

Only to grab her backpack as if he was snatching a cookie.

‘Got ya.’ He thought to himself, after grabbing her backpack.

He cautiously and slowly started gently pulling her back to get her out of between the boxes, as she was dragging her feet to stop herself.

She was squirming so much that he could not carefully drag her out without accidentally hurting her.

So, he instead hoists her up from the ground to smoothly pull her out than dragging her.

She gasped when she was picked up, feeling the straps of her backpack on her shoulders lifted up along with her, as her feet left the ground.

She noticed his fingers were only attached to her backpack when she glanced over her shoulder again to see what he is doing, so she slipped out of her backpack straps.

After she slipped out of her backpack straps, she softly landed back down on the concrete ground and went deeper into the narrow hallway of the crates.

When she reaches the end of the hallway, she curled closer to the nearest corner there is, hoping his long thin arm would not grab her.

When he carefully moved his arm out of the narrow space he was reaching through, he only saw her backpack in his hand except with the girl who carries it around.

So, he put her backpack into his left hand and placed it in his pocket on the left side of his pants.

He went back down on the ground as his left hand was on the ground, as his right arm reached back into the middle of the crates to get her out of her hiding spot.

“Come on, I’m not gonna hurt ya,” he gently spoke.

She only replied with a whimper of fear as she scrambled backward more into the nearest corner, moving out of the fingers’ way.

Terrified to get caught by him.

As she was moving around, she was collecting more dust onto her body.

And during the process, her allergies started to kick up.

She felt another sneeze coming, so, she sneezed the third time in the row, loudly.

“Achoo!” she loudly sneezed.

“Gesundheit!” he remarked after she had sneezed.

He kept on reaching for her, not minding his arm is getting tired of extending out to her, so, he continued to reach down the middle of the crates.

When he reaches the end of the gap, he felt one of his leading digits gently touched her chest.

She felt embarrassed about the touch on her chest, so, she gently slapped his first finger in embarrassment from the direct contact.

He felt the gentle slap from her, but it felt like a soft tap to him.

Noticing he might have touched an uncomfortable place that she does not like people touching, he moved his hand down slightly, while scooting forward.

His face was close to the side of the crate, as his arm was in between the boxes.

After he had moved forward, his first finger touched her stomach, as she gasped, clenching her stomach with her muscles to get away from his touching fingers.

He carefully wrapped his whole right hand around her, covering her entire body with his hand, except her head and legs, which are popping out from the top and bottom, as her arms were gently pinned to her sides.

She was caught and could not move any of her body parts to squirm right out of his hand.

The girl accepted her capture since there was no escape and let him pull her out from between the crates.

When she was out in the opening, she was face to face with the Scout, as he was holding her inches away from his face.

She started trembling in fear as she was in front of his face, scared to death of him, as her pupils went inward.

He slowly stood up to his full height as he held the small girl in his hand as his legs were a little sore from crouching down to reach her from the crates for a while.

After he had stood up, he noticed she was covered head to toe with dust from hiding in between the crates.

She felt another sneeze coming, so, she sneezed the fourth time.

“Achoo!” she loudly sneezed.

“Bless ya,” He responded to her sneeze.

She jolted from the sound of his voice and started to cry.

“Hey, what did I say to ya?” He asked, sounding worried that she started to cry.

She did not reply to him as she continued crying softly, as she sniffed a couple of times.

He noticed she was allergic to the dust, because of the slight cherry red face on her rosy cheeks and it was not from crying.

The Scout was worried for her, so he reached into his other pocket that does not contain her backpack and pulled out a small white cloth from his pocket.

He gently wrapped it around his first finger with one hand and reached over to her with the finger that has the cloth covering.

She panicked when she noticed his finger through her tears, thinking the cloth is filled with sleeping liquid.

So she closed her tear-stained eyes, hoping this will end quickly, when she instead felt a gentle touch from him, on top of her dust-covered head.

She opened her eyes in confusion and glanced up in curiosity, to noticing he is actually gently wiping the dust off her from hiding in between the crates.

He was being careful with her as he gently wiped the dust off her head, also wiping the tears off her cheeks too as she closed her eyes.

When he finished cleaning her face from being covered in dust and tears, he moved down to her body.

The Scout opened his hand from being wrapped around her body; she tilted his hand down as she is laying down on his palm.

She did not move as he laid her down in his palm, feeling scared if she stirs she would fall to her death after falling off his hand.

She felt mildly embarrassed about him gently touching her body without her permission, so, she instead lets him.

Worried if she gently slaps his clothed finger away, he might get furious at her for that.

After he had been done carefully wiping the dust off her body, the front and back, her hair was slightly staticity from the cloth he has.

She used her arms to brush her hair down as she is sitting in his palm.

He placed the cloth back into the same pocket where he had pulled it out earlier as she finished brushing her hair down.

The Scout then gently wraps his fingers around her body again, carefully changing the plane of holding her form to 90° angle, as her head, and arms were poking out from the top and her feet dangling down at the bottom.

She does not trust him, but she knows when to either run or to say something to him.

“Scout! Where the hell are you?!” the Soldier’s voice suddenly yelled, startling both Scout and the girl.

The Scout glanced at the door on the other side of the garage, looking at whoever could be walking in the garage.

The girl started to panic as she gripped the Scout’s bandages around his hand with her hands.

She could not be seen by another team member, because of the way how humans treat borrowers in her memory, remembering stories about them.

Before she could squirm out of his hand to escape from the Scout, she was suddenly shoved into a dark and loose space, but deep enough inside to prevent her from crawling out of it.

She is shoved into his pants pocket.

There was no way to escape nor to crawl out of his pocket.

The cloth was underneath her body cushioned her from being uncomfortable inside of him walking or running.

She felt like she is laying on top of a soft bed, despite that the cloth was covered in dust.

Luckily, the cloth was wadded up into a small ball, so she does not have the dust underneath her body.

As she was thinking of a way to get out of his pocket, she heard stomping feet enter the garage, as she immediately froze.

Those feet belong to the Soldier.

Deciding to stay inside his pocket, she curled into the cloth underneath her to make herself small, but listened to the conversation between the two.

“What is it?” she heard the Scout asked from above her body.

“Have you seen Lieutenant Bites?” she heard the Soldier demanded, walking up to him.

She shrunk more into the cloth as she quietly winced to herself, worried about being caught in a fight.

“No, I have not,” the Scout replied.

She continued listening to their conversation, as she felt something gently place against her side.

The girl jolted from the sudden touch, thinking it was someone else.

But she relaxed somewhat when she noticed the feeling was from the Scout.

The female was shaking a little as she continued hearing the two of them chattering as the Scout’s hand removed away from her.

By the opening of his pocket, she could slightly see the Scout is casually talking to the Soldier in front of him, not looking down at her as he continued talking to the Soldier, now have his arms crossed over his chest.

After a couple of minutes of talking, as she imagined herself getting pulled out from the Scout’s pocket and shown to the Soldier, then to the entire team, used as a plush toy.

She shivers to herself as she forced the memory to go away.

But instead of getting pulled out of the pocket, she heard the Soldier’s sigh, sounding like he is annoyed about something between their conversations.

“Fine, I’m going to check with the Medic if he knows where Lieutenant Bites is,” the Soldier loudly replied.

“All right then, find your little pet,” the Scout sneered.

She heard the Soldier turned his back around towards the Scout, heading for a different place, as the sound of his stomping feet fades away.

The girl shakily sighs and placed her hands on her chest.

As for the Scout, he watched as the Soldier stomps away, and sighed in relief after the Soldier left.

He gently placed a hand back to the trembling girl in his pocket, while he felt her jolt once more from the touch of his entire palm.

‘Da Doc wasn’t kiddin’ ‘bout da girl bein’ traumatized.’ He thought to himself, feeling a bit guilty of frightening her almost to death.

He glanced away from his pocket for a moment, to check if the Soldier came back.

When the coast is clear, he glanced away from the door, thinking of a way to calm her down from her fear.

If he takes her to his room, it will feel uncomfortable with having a tiny lady around.

But, she might also find things supposed to stay hidden.

Before he could give in, he noticed the sun was setting slightly over the visible horizon in the distance, as there was a single tree from the light.

The scenery gave him an idea from the view.

So, he reached back into the pocket he placed her in earlier, with his right hand.

He hopes she does not remember the last time he held her.

Inside his pocket, she noticed he was reaching for her again, so, she tried to move to the bottom of the pocket to escape from his fingers.

But they got to her and gently wrapped around her body, as she gave out a small and terrified whimper, feeling a little tight in the Scout’s hand.

He carefully pulled her out from his pocket, and she was shaking uncontrollably from head to toe, fearing he might use her as a baseball or worse than what she is thinking of what he might do to her next after he has captured her.

As she was in front of him, her heart was beating fast as she was in front of his face, feeling worried and scared about what he might do to her.

Without warning, he gently pressed her up against his smooth chest and ran straight in the direction of the plain, towards a grassy hill in the distance, while carefully carrying the girl against his chest.

As he ran over to the grassy plain in the distance, she gripped two handfuls of his shirt he is wearing, worried if he trips, she might be squashed from underneath all his weight, or worse from him that she does not want him to do to her.

The Scout felt her grip his shirt, so, he steadily decelerated his pace, so she can feel safe.

When he reached the hill, he slowed down his running pace to walking.

After he went from running to walking, he stopped at the top of the grassy hill, as an acorn tree grew on top of the slope.

Being careful as he can, he slowly and carefully sat down underneath the tree and leaned back against it.

When he got comfortable, he glanced down at the girl on his chest, now not gently pressing her against his chest from the running.

She was still shaking slightly from her capture earlier, worried that he might be doing this so that she can be forced to believe in him.

So that he might torture her to death because of how small she is or make her as an obedient slave for their deeds.

But, she began calming down slowly, realizing he is not doing anything rash to her.

Her trembling started to slow down a bit, slowly from his heartbeat that she hears from his chest.

It is strong like anyone’s hearts would, but this heartbeat she hears is quick like a rabbit’s or a hummingbird’s.

‘Whoa…’ She thought to herself in amazement, as her cheeks were gently splashed with hints of pink. ‘His heartbeat is strong… But isn’t it dangerous for anyone’s heart to be that fast after they drink or eat that much sugar? …Or is it because he exercised a lot?’

She was silent for a moment listening to his heartbeat, did not realize he was staring at her in confusion, wondering why she is quiet.

He thinks she might have fallen asleep from the feeling and the sound of his heartbeat, so he decided to pick her up from his chest.

She felt his fingers gently curled in slightly, and she panicked, moving her head up from his chest, believing he is going to pick her up roughly like a child would to a plush toy.

When he instead did not pick her up, but moved his hand away from her, as she laid there perfectly still.

“Oh, you’re still awake.” he softly spoke, as she jumped from the sudden sound of his voice. “I thought dat you fell asleep.”

She only stared at him with confusion on her face, confused about why he said that to her.

The girl expected yelling or anything that would scare her more, but this was unexpected.

He glanced up from her to the horizon and scooted up slightly, as she quickly grabbed two handfuls of his shirt.

“Hey, you’re gonna miss this,” she spoke, as she glanced up at him from her hands. “Look behind ya.”

She gazes at him in confusion for a moment, before deciding to follow his order.

So she slowly turned around, and glanced cautiously at where he was staring at.

When she looked behind her back, she saw the sun slowly setting over the horizon, making the sky into a beautiful pink, orange, and yellow mixture in the heavens.

The way of the scenery looked like one of the pictures her sister colored when she was much younger.

She was silent for a moment, as she gazed in awe at the gorgeous sunset, watching as it sets over the horizon.

The girl calmed down a bit, feeling relieved he is not going to hurt her.

But, the other half of her mind is saying fearfully, ‘Why are you here?! He is going to squash you later, after the sun sets over the horizon! You should run for your life right now!’

The other half of her mind was saying to stay put until she knows what is going on.

So she decided to stay put, but alert for any sudden movements or sudden grabbing of his hands.

“Hey, are ya asleep?” the Scout quietly questions, gently pulling her from her worried thoughts.

She jolted slightly from his voice suddenly asking her as she glanced at him from the sunset.

The girl only replied with a nervous look on her face, responding immediately to his question, “N-No, I’m awake! Just lookin’ at the beautiful sunset…”

She went silent again after she had trailed off, glancing away from his gaze to the left side.

Nervous that he might kill her later, after the sunset.

But he felt suspicious about why she went silent after the blurted out her words.

She chews her lip tensely and spoke after her burst, “I’m just scared…”

He rose one of his eyebrows in confusion and asked, “Why are ya nervous?”

She glanced back at his eyes and answered, “I actually have not encountered a giant before in my life.”

He felt more confused about her answer, so he asked, “How didja get small and how didja get here since you've never seen a giant before?”

She answered the question he asked about, “I can’t remember how I shrank before I met ya. The only thing that I remembered was that runnin’ away from a machine that was chasin’ me in the forest, then I tripped over an uprooted root from a tree, then I slammed my head against somethin’ metal like on the ground, thus the injury on my head that your medic noticed earlier from our first meetin’.”

He fell silent for a moment, and she added, “And the reason that I’m jumpy and nervous all the time, is because I am also terrified of gettin’ hurt or worse, killed by giants, too. I mean, giants to me could be dangerous, but I don’t blame them. It’s what they choose.”

He was quiet as he stared at her, and she quickly added, worried about him thinking differently than what she was thinking of.

“I don’t mean that all giants are mean, big and scary, I meant I’m scared to get hurt by them on accident. I don’t know who to trust or believe in. Everythin’ around me is new to me, and I was left alone in the Medic Bay without any warning. I was just waiting in there for the results.”

She sighed as she placed her right hand on the right side of her head, feeling the bruise on her head.

“I’m sorry I’m a bit of a chatterbox, but…” she trailed off, thinking to herself of what else she might talk about.

He sat up slightly from against the tree behind his back, getting a bit comfortable from the previous position he was in.

She glanced up at him from looking away for a moment, looking a bit worried.

“So you’re afraid dat we might catch ya and use you for somethin’ against your will?” he asked, saying what she said in his own words.

“I guess,” she nervously replied, glancing away from him again.

She looked at the sunset behind her back, as he thought her words on what she is feeling.

Reflecting on what he or his friends could do to her.

Shaking the thoughts out of his head, he decided to comfortable as his back was aching slightly.

So being careful, he adjusted his posture from where he was laying down earlier.

Before he could move, he remembers her on his chest as she was busy focusing on the sunset behind her back.

He stopped at where he was and reached over to her with both of his hands.

She went back around in confusion when she noticed he was shifting around slightly and was startled when he moved his hands in from each side.

He gently scooped her up from his chest onto his palms of his hands.

The girl did not squirm out of his hands from the sudden touch, so she instead stayed still, as she was lifted up to his face.

He went into a sitting position, as his legs were crisscrossed, as she was still laying on her front, waiting for him to stop moving around.

When he stopped, she got up from laying down in his palms, sitting up onto her knees.

“Listen pally, me or mah friends won’t do any of dat to ya, and I’ll promise ya dis, I’ll keep ya safe from any harm, and make ya feel like home, ‘til we get ya to your real home. Understand?” he huffed, sounding determined to keep her safe from any harm to her new size.

She oddly felt protected with him in his hands, so, she nodded her head and got up to her feet before wobbled from his soft spongy palms and landed on her bottom.

“Tryin’ to stand?” he asked, with a lack of sarcasm in his voice.

“Nope, just tryin’ to get to my bottom, which apparently worked,” she explained. “And that was my first time to stand in someone’s hands.”

The Scout nodded his head, and she placed her right hand on his thumb, as a way to tell him that she believes in him.

“I also believe in ya, Scout,” she replied.

He softly chuckled while he got up to his feet, being careful with the passenger in his hands, as she gently tightened her grip on his thumb, a little worried about falling to the ground.

“Please, ‘Scout’ is mah nickname, mah real name is Jeremy Ciel, yours?” he introduced himself.

She softly chuckled and replied, happy, and relieved that she is not going to get killed by him after the sunset, nor from any of his friends, “Stephanie, Stephanie Nova Rose Allen is my name, Jeremy!”

He gently smiled a bit, and she chuckled softly along with him, although slightly nervous about his trust towards her.

“Anyway, wanna go back inside?” She asked, jabbing a thumb back at the RED base. “I’ll go into the same hole that I found earlier, and-”

She was cut off when he put her in his right hand and carefully placed her on his left shoulder, right near his neck where she can talk into his ear.

“Nu-uh. You’re stayin’ in mah room for da evenin’,” he replied after she was placed on his shoulder, removing his hand from her.

Stephanie’s cheeks blushed a rosy color in embarrassment.

“A-Are you sure about that?” She stammered in embarrassment.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” he calmly replied, as he carefully stood up to his feet, and walked away from the tree, heading towards the RED base.

“But I respect other people’s privacies,” She sheepishly explained.

He glanced over at her in confusion about her sheepish reply.

“Ya respect other people?” He questioned in confusion.

“Yeah, I used to live with a mom and a sister. My poor Dad is the only male in the family,” She answered, remembering her past.

When he got to the garage door, he walked cautiously through the frame, looking out for anyone else from the team that might be waiting for him.

After the coast is clear, he walked over to the door and opened it, entering the RED base.

“So, do ya know where your family is?” he asked, with a bit of hope in his heart.

He sincerely hopes she is not the only one alone and worried to encounter an outraged family that thought he shrank her to hand size if he takes her back.

She was silent for a moment, as she gently stroked the back of her neck with her left hand, as her other hand was holding onto his shirt’s collar.

Stephanie only sadly answered, lying to him about her family, “I, unfortunately, can’t remember that one either.”

He felt remorseful for her, as she glanced away from him, with a hurt look on her face.

The Scout looked away from Stephanie and quickly glanced around for any of his crew members heading his direction.

Luckily, they are all asleep in their beds since it is almost dark today.

He carefully and quietly snuck into his room and quietly opened the door to his room.

His room is not that big, but large enough for his bed and cloth dresser to be inside for him to sleep and change his clothes.

“Well, dis is mah room where I sleep.” he calmly spoke, breaking the ice between the both.

She glanced up from looking away and noticed his room.

At first, she did not want to sleep inside, but the warmth inside was attracting.

So, she allowed herself to be in his room.

He moved his right hand over to her and gently but carefully scooped Stephanie up from his shoulder and place her down on the table right beside his bed, right near a lamp.

After she had been placed on top of the table, he walked away for a moment, leaving Stephanie in confusion, until he absent-mindedly started taking off his shirt.

Stephanie went bright red as his shirt.

She grabbed the hood of her sweater and pulled it over her head, covering her face with it.

Embarrassed that she saw him change right in front of her!

She still has her hood over her face when she heard something set in front of her.

So, she peeked from underneath her hood by pushing it up slightly.

Stephanie saw her backpack in front of her, unharmed or smashed from his strength.

She thought he might have tossed it away in the trash since he took it off of her to escape from him, but it is in front of her without any signs that it was thrown in the trash!

Stephanie gently lifted her hood a little in confusion and in awe, until she glanced up slightly, seeing him without his shirt on, revealing his smooth and flat skin.

He is skinny like she noticed before, but he lacks any abs or muscles.

Stephanie’s rosy cheeks went rosier than before, as she quickly pulls the hood over her face again, deeply embarrassed.

The Scout softly chuckles at her reaction of him half-naked.

“You did that on purpose didja?” Stephanie asked, muffledly from underneath the hood.

“Maybe,” the Scout mischievously replied, moving away from her to continue getting undressed. “Or maybe you’re a little too shy.”

“Oh, shush!” Stephanie scolded him, as the Scout softly chuckled.

Then, after a moment of silence again, she felt something gently tapped her head, so she slowly removed her hood, checking if he was still naked.

She bravely glanced up at him, and to her relief, he is now wearing a white tank top with black pants that reaches down to his ankles.

They are his pajamas to wear for the night.

“Best if ya change too. Ya wouldn’t be sleepin’ in your clothes for da night,” he replied thoughtfully.

Stephanie recalled what he meant, so she stood up, before stopping herself, looking uncertain.

“Oh, I promise not to look at ya,” he assured.

“Promise?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I promise.” The Scout assured again.

She hesitated at first as she glanced away from him, but followed after her thoughts.

“Alright, I’m ready,” she spoke, glancing up at him.

He nodded his head and glanced away from her, as she changed, although checking behind her back in case if he breaks her promise.

While she was changing without him looking at her, he thought to himself about her parents.

Who were they and where could they be?

Where could her brothers or sisters go, and who was there with her as she escaped into the lush forest?

And where was this forested part that she came from she spoke of?

After a while of thinking to himself, Stephanie finished changing as she put her shirt over her body, glancing back at him as he was distracted.

“Jeremy?” Stephanie’s voice gently pulled him from his thoughts.

“Hmm?” he replied gently, glancing back at Stephanie.

She is wearing a blue long-sleeved pajama shirt, with light navy colored pants that reach down to her ankles.

Her glasses, shoes, socks, sweater, and shirt were off and neatly folded to the side, along with her backpack, ready for the next day.

She looked cute wearing those pajamas in his opinion.

“So, uh, where could I sleep?” she sheepishly asked, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

“In mah bed, of course,” he answered, standing up fully from kneeling slightly to her height.

Her cheeks went rosy again like last time he said about staying in his room.

“Y-Yours?!” she softly exclaimed in shock and embarrassment.

He nodded his head, answering her question.

Stephanie glanced away from his gaze, looking embarrassed as her cheeks flustered.

“Are you sure about that?” she nervously asked.

He nodded his head again as he gently placed his right hand on the table for her to climb on top.

Stephanie hesitated for a moment before carefully climbed onto his palm.

When she sat down in the middle of his palm, that is still bandaged, he carefully lifted Stephanie up from the table, being careful from accidentally dropping her to the ground.

Just to be safe, she placed her right hand on his thumb, as he gently curled his fingers in to be protected.

“Of course! I don’t wanna see ya uncomfortable on da bedside,” he remarked, lifting her up to his face.

“True.” she agreed, sounding nervous. “It can be a little uncomfortable for me to be on the table.”

He then placed her gently against his chest, as a barrier for her to be protected.

When she was near his chest, she absent-mindedly gently leaned her head into his chest.

She felt normal, but a bit nervous and shy that she is sleeping in his bed.

Not only that, she feels safe, now that she is protected by him.

In the distance of her thoughts, she can hear his heartbeat.

It felt like a lullaby for her to automatically fall asleep.

He cautiously walked over to his bed and sat down carefully with the passenger against his chest as his hand was covering her back as a protective barrier.

When he sat down on the bed, he moved his legs into the bed sheets and with his left hand, he pulled the covers up to his waist.

After getting into his bed, he carefully laid on his back, his right hand still on Stephanie, as she winced, grabbing two handfuls of his tank top.

Then, he pulled the cover to his front, slightly covering Stephanie and half of his front.

Stephanie felt a little nervous, confused, and calm now that she is sleeping on someone’s chest and on the bed!

But, the lullaby of his heartbeat made her feel sleepy and relaxing, so, she fell asleep, on his chest, distantly listening to his pulse.

He felt puzzled about why she was silent during the night.

Worried, he was going to ask her a question, when he heard soft and quiet snoring from his front.

He glanced down at his chest, noticing Stephanie, all curled up against his shirt in a slightly small ball in his hand with the giant blanket over her body, except her head.

She is sleeping peacefully on his chest, her handfuls of his tank top released and placed underneath her head, acting as a pillow for her to sleep comfortably.

Instead of feeling embarrassed, he instead gently smiled at her, feeling proud of himself to let her trust him slowly.

With the tip of his thumb, gently rubbing her back in a circular motion, while the rest of his hand is still wrapped around her body.

He placed his head back down on his pillow, after checking Stephanie if she is okay.

After a while of being in the room in silence, he too starts falling asleep.

Then, he fell asleep with her, being careful with Stephanie on his chest that is peacefully sleeping throughout the night with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	3. Chapter 2: The Soldier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie went with Jeremy and until she got picked up by someone else...

The next day, the morning sun gradually rose from the horizon, shining serenely across the plain.

The sun serenely shines through the windows of the bedrooms of the wooden base, which is where the Scout’s room is.

Inside that room is the Scout, lying still in his bed on his back, snoring quietly, while his right hand was on top of Stephanie’s back on his chest.

She was comfortable and able to sleep without having to squirm around to get comfy.

After a minute passed, a military trumpet play in the distance of the wooden base, sounding like it was from the military campgrounds her Dad mentioned back at her home.

Stephanie was the first one to wake up from the knocking.

She yawned quietly, as she gently stretched out her arms and legs, being careful to not rouse him up by moving too much in his blanket-like hand.

Then, she heard knocking from the door.

The Scout groaned awake from the noise as he twitched.

He gently curled his fingers around Stephanie’s middle as he was stretching out his body.

She stayed perfectly still as he moved her from his chest and placed her on his bedside table, as she went onto her knees, right next to his alarm clock.

Luckily he had it off when he got into the room.

The knocking continued to knock on the door, as he sat up slightly in his bed, groaning to himself and gently rubbing his left eye with the bottom of his left palm.

“Okay, okay!” he called out to the knocking. “I’m awake!”

The knocking stopped after he called out to the knocking, and Stephanie could hear stomping feet left the doorway.

She felt nervous and worried about who was behind the door.

“Uh, Jeremy?” Stephanie asked, sounding worried.

“Yeah?” the Scout answered, glancing over at her, slightly dazed from getting up.

“Who was that at the door?” she politely asked, still staring at the door.

He glanced over at the door and answered, glancing back at her, “It was da Soldier.”

She gently rose one of her eyebrows in confusion and cocked her head to the side, before remembering the moment when he was in front of the Soldier, screaming hysterically in front of his face about “Lieutenant Bites.”

“Oh…” she remembered, before shivering in fear at the memory in her head. “He is scary.”

“Yeah, but,” he began, before pulling the covers off his body.

Stephanie got up to her feet on the bedside table she was carefully placed on top of.

“He’s not dat scary if you get to know him.” The Scout assured her.

“Are you sure ‘bout that?” she curiously asked.

“Yeah,” the Scout shrugged his shoulders. “He might be scary and loud, but, he’s just a guy dat sometimes throws a fierce temper fit when somethin’s outta place or protectin’ ya from somethin’ he knows ‘bout.”

She picked up her glasses from the top of the pile of her clothing and carefully put them on her nose bridge, gently nudging them upwards into place.

“All right, if you say so.” she sighed, before warning him, “But if I do get hurt from him-”

“I know, I know,” he gently chuckled, interrupting her in the middle of her sentences, as he moved his right hand up as a way of stopping her. “You’ll kick mah ass.”

“Maybe,” she replied gently, leaning down to get her blue jeans closer to her body. “That’s maybe a maybe or a dependent.”

Stephanie was about to start to get undressed when she glanced back at the Scout.

“Are you watching me?” she cautiously asked.

“Nah, I’m just gettin’ into my own clothes.” the Scout responded, as he has his back facing her and getting his shirt on.

She shrugged her shoulders and went back to change into her clothes, although she does not feel keen on changing in front of him.

This is the second time she had ever changed in front of an unfamiliar man than her father.

She politely ignored the thought of the social awkwardness and carefully placed on her bra and then, her other long sleeved blue shirt that reaches down to her hips, covering her privates.

She was going to put on her underwear, when she suddenly heard a voice spoke to her from behind, “Huh, you like blue very much, do ya?”

Stephanie yelped in startlement and turned around to the voice, as her cheeks are splashed with red.

She sees the Scout staring thoughtfully at her with a curious and slightly amused look on his face.

“You look like a smurf from that show Pyro watches.” he softly chuckled.

Stephanie wanted to slap his face from the remark, as she frowned in embarrassment but she stopped herself from taking the chance.

She instead patiently waited for him to look away from her, as she stood there, not even budging an inch to get any clothes on.

He noticed the embarrassed look on her face and waited patiently for the yelling from her for staring at her rudely, but she instead waited with patience for him to look away.

He glanced away in slight confusion, wondering why she did not yell at him.

Stephanie sighed gently in relief that he does not have a phone with him, or else, it might get more embarrassing for her.

He got up from his bed, stretching for a moment, getting ready for the modern day.

She reached over and picked up her blue jeans, as her underwear was inside and put them on, buttoning it up in the middle and gently pulled up the zipper.

Them, Stephanie grabbed her shoes with her socks and placed them on, socks first and then shoes, after tying them a bit from being loose.

But before she could carefully put on her sweater, she glanced over her shoulder, to look at the Scout.

When she glanced over at him, she noticed him with his shirt off, instead of his pants and boxers, revealing his smooth back.

Now that she is not embarrassed to look again, she seems to be intrigued about why he hides his body.

“Huh,” she spoke, breaking the ice in the air. “You have an interesting body, Jeremy. Such a shame that you hide it behind all of those clothes.”

He stopped reaching for his red shirt on the bed after she spoke and instantly turned towards her, as his cheeks and the tip of his ears tinted slightly in a rosy red color from her remark.

She gently chuckled softly, amused at his reaction, as he huffed, the color on his cheeks still there.

“You did dat on purpose, didja?” he asked, repeating the same line that she spoke when he first changed in front of her.

“Maybe,” Stephanie smirked, copying his word after she asked him the same question, turning back to her sweater, chuckling softly to herself.

He rolled his eyes after she glanced away, went back to change into his uniform.

She tightened her belt around her waist, and reached down again and picked up her blue cameo sweater and put it on, zipping it up too, after moving her hood down and her hair from behind.

Then, she picked up her dark blue backpack and put it on her back, while thinking about the rest of the team members, and how they are going to react about her roaming around in the base.

While she is pondering to herself, she finished getting dressed in her clothes and the Scout was done with his changing, but not wearing his hat yet.

He glanced back at Stephanie, who is not paying any attention to him, as she was busy thinking to herself.

An idea popped into his head, so, he reached back over to Stephanie, and he gently picked her up by gently wrapping his hand around her body, as her arms were poking out from the top.

He accidentally startled her as she yelped, snapping back into reality.

“Hey!” Stephanie cried out, as she was moved away from the counter, and towards his body. “What are you-?”

She stopped in her sentences when she was moved up to his head, landing front first into his hair, as she yelped again.

After landing on top of his head, she moved her head up after spitting out some hair strands from her mouth, before he placed his hat over her head, concealing her in darkness.

She noticed that his hair is acting like grass, except brown and covered with fabric over her head.

Outside of his hat, the Scout his dog tags around his neck, then his headphone.

He felt Stephanie moving around from underneath his hat, noticing that she was confused, so, he reached up with his right hand, and moved his hat up slightly, as she pushed up, looking confused.

“Jeremy? Why am I on your head?” she asked, sounding confused. “Am I going to be safe here?”

“Sure, your gunna be safe.” The Scout responded, assuring her as she glanced down at him. “I couldn’t just carry ya around in mah pocket during the battle, hmm?”

Stephanie paused to herself from his reply, before nodding her head slowly in agreement.

“Okay, true.” she nodded. “But, couldn’t I just stay here? I-I don’t think I want to be out on the battlefield.”

“And let some Spy enter here and steal ya, nope.” he stubbornly declined, picking up his baseball bat carried from the ground, and putting it over his shoulder.

“There’s Spies around here?” Stephanie shivered, imagining herself to get killed or kidnapped by one of them.

“Yep, there’s two of them, and they both are assholes.” The Scout continued, sounding irritated when he mentioned about the Spies.

Stephanie fell quiet as she thought to herself, feeling nervous in both ways.

Stay here and get kidnapped or killed by a Spy, or go with him and get killed on the battlefield?

So, she decided to go with him.

“Okay.” Stephanie agreed, as she gently grabbed two handfuls of his hair, not too much hair to accidentally yank off too much. “I’ll go with you. But, please be careful.”

He gently nodded his head in knowledge after she agreed and moved his hat back down over his head, covering Stephanie as she went down to his head, laying perfectly still on her stomach.

The Scout walked over to his door, while Stephanie slightly tightened her grip on her handfuls of hair, nervous about falling off his head.

He unlocked his door to his room, as Stephanie carefully gathered another small handful of his hair, not too much to make him cry out in pain from the hair tug.

Stephanie felt him walk into a room and overheard him talking to someone else from the other side of the fabric of the hat.

“Yo, what’s up?” The Scout spoke as Stephanie felt him gently nod his head.

He was not using too much of his nodding to make her either dizzy or sick.

“Good morning, Scout!” a gruff American voice greeted him, sounding precisely like the same voice she heard from the back in the base’s garage.

“Yeah, mornin’ to ya too, Solly,” The Scout replied to his welcoming greeting to him.

‘That must be that Soldier.’ Stephanie thought to herself, as she shivered again at the memory again, reminding her of her father when he is angry.

She felt his body sat down on a chair while talking to the Soldier, teasing him a bit while getting some warnings from him.

Stephanie felt… like she is safe with him.

She was not in trouble nor in danger.

He was not using too much movement or head movement either, just talking to people.

Some of the voices sound familiar but at the same time, some of them she does not know about, while there are some that piqued her interest about who the voice belongs to.

She scooted closer to the Scout’s head, to be more protected and hidden instead of on her hands and knees, feeling like she is a lioness, hunting for warthogs hidden inside the grass.

Except the grass surrounding her body is actually short brown hair of a human.

“ _Mission begins in 30 seconds!_ ” the same voice replied through the speakers, speaking through the fabric of the Scout’s hat, alerting everyone outside including the Scout himself. “ _The mission begins in 30 seconds!_ ”

‘War? Whom are they fighting against?’ She thought to herself in confusion, glancing up slightly towards where she thinks is where the speakers are. ‘Maybe those people in the other base?’

She felt the Scout stood up from the chair that he was still sitting on and walked for a few moments before Stephanie could hear guns clicking and something being sharpened.

‘That must be a knife.’ She thought to herself, before shivering slightly at the explicit image of her being stabbed.

Next, she heard the Scout picked up something metallic by the way the sound came from it.

It was a soft clunk when it gently hit against the metal locker, as there was some metal noise from it.

Stephanie guessed the noise was from a baseball bat, by how the noise dulled when it hits against something.

She remembered the first time she once held a baseball bat in her hands when she was much younger back then.

Stephanie did not like the tryout, but she did have a good catching and throwing hand when she throws the baseball.

“ _Mission begins in 20 seconds!_ ” the voice repeated through the speakers. “ _The mission beings in 20 seconds._ ”

He finished gathering his weapons and closed the locker’s door, before walking away, heading towards a spot where he can charge out into the battle.

She mentally wanted to abort the mission, but she instead calmed herself down, assuring that he will keep her safe from anyone, any being, or anything.

After a while of walking, he stopped at a spot and got ready, as Stephanie clenched the handfuls of hair in her hands.

It was not too tight, but just right enough to keep her intact.

“ _Mission beings in 10 seconds!_ ” the voice repeated through the speakers, counting down to the last number. “ _The mission beings in 10 seconds._ ”

After the speakers turned on again, the Scout stopped at a spot, and the voice on the other side of the mic started the countdown to zero.

Stephanie’s heart was beating faster each minute has passed.

“ _3, 2, 1, begin!_ ” When the countdown finished, the Scout ran out of the door, heading towards the battlefield as Stephanie softly hissed nervously through her teeth.

He ran away from his spot as Stephanie gripped tighter, feeling more and more worried about falling off his head.

She felt him run for a long time, turning tight corners, stopping a few times, only to almost fall forward before placed her elbows to the sides to stop herself.

When he stopped again, she sighed in relief and glanced down at her hands.

Her knuckles were turned white.

‘Well… know I know why my sister hates roller coaster rides…’ she thought to herself.

Suddenly, she overheard something whistling in the air, heading towards them.

She accidentally released the Scout’s hair as she gasped, noticing that the noise was getting closer to them.

Before she could warn him about the noise, the object landed and exploded, causing the Scout to disappear, except his hat and Stephanie.

They both were tossed to the side, as Stephanie was giving out a startled scream, falling towards the ground.

She landed roughly on the ground front first, as she gave out an “Oof!”

After she landed roughly on the ground, the Scout’s hat covered her body, as she jolted from the sudden darkness.

Using her right hand, she gently lifted the hat up slightly to see what happened, only to see the Scout was gone!

‘Oh, crap!’ She cursed to herself, worried about being stuck in the battlefield, and to get killed by someone. ‘I have to get out of here!’

Moving the hat down from looking, she pushed the hat upward on the top and started to run straight blindly, not knowing what’s going on outside.

She thought she was heading for the wooden base to hide somewhere no one could find her, and no other people would either catch her.

But she went to the wrong base, without noticing that she was heading for the enemy’s base.

After she had gone to the wrong base, she gently rose the hat up slightly to see her surroundings and noticed the place looked unfamiliar from the wooden base.

Everything inside was created in concrete and filled with new machines than built in wood and filled with old fashioned devices than the wooden base.

Everything inside the other base perked her interest, but at the same time, confused her.

Where did she appear in?

She glanced around for a moment, curious about the base she accidentally wandered into, and what team is in this base.

After a moment of looking around, she suddenly overheard footsteps walking towards where she is, and gasped quietly in fear when she realized what they are.

Someone is in the base now!

Panicking, she carefully placed the hat back over her body and zipped underneath a table.

Once she got underneath the table, she peeked from underneath the hat slightly, to see who is inside the base.

When the footsteps got closer, she ducked a bit down as she watched a pair of boots walking in front of the table, before stopping.

Her breath hitches as she patiently waited for the figure to go away, as the boots stayed as they were.

Daringly, she decided to see who the figure is, so she moved the hat up slightly, only to see the same person in front of her.

The Pyro!

She was about to duck underneath the hat when she saw the figure in front of her, but something else caught her attention that stopped her from hiding again.

The Pyro was wearing blue, not red.

She remembered back in the Medic Bay that she encountered the Pyro that is wearing red, which terrified her, but they did not cause any harm to her but muffledly asked the Medic questions.

Somehow, she felt rather calm around the Pyro wearing red, but she does not know if the Pyro standing in front of her wearing blue would react the same way the other one did.

Her stomach twists nervously from the thought of being caught by the Pyro standing in front of her and get immediately killed.

Or mistaken as one of theirs since she is wearing blue.

After the Pyro in blue glanced around for a moment, checking for anyone that is dressed in red, they left the spot where they were standing at and went somewhere else.

They turned the corner down the hallway and walked into another corridor, as the distant smell of charcoal trailed behind from its back.

After the blue gas-masked figure left, she gently sighed in relief after they disappeared, as her stomach untwists.

She carefully walked out from underneath the table she was hiding underneath and glanced side to side for any incoming people dressed in blue.

After checking around, she carefully placed the Scout’s hat back over her body and continued to walk cautiously down the hallway.

She did not notice that she was walking the wrong way down the hallway towards where she thinks the exit is.

As she walked down the hallway, she suddenly slammed into something hard that caused her to fall backward.

She collapsed on the ground on her bottom underneath the Scout’s hat and winced from the impact, rubbing her face with her right hand as her glasses were tilted off to the side.

After she rubbed the feeling off her face, she suddenly overheard a familiar gruff American voice replied, “Hmm? What’s this?”

She started to panic after she heard the voice spoke and was about to get up to her feet when the Scout’s hat suddenly picked up from around her body.

She glanced up to see whoever is in front of her, only to notice another man, except wearing a blue uniform, instead of red.

He was dressed in the same color as the Pyro.

And it was a Soldier like the other one that she saw back when she first saw the Scout!

In his right hand was a shovel, as it was covered in fresh blood.

It instantly made her go into flight mode when she noticed both the smell of blood and the sight.

Panic flowed into her veins, as she gave out a panicked yelp, quickly scrambled up to her feet as she turned the other way, trying to escape from the Soldier.

As she ran, she overheard something tossed to the side, so she glanced over her shoulder while in a running pace, noticing the Soldier is grinning wickedly, with a smirk of amusement, as the Scout’s hat was tossed to the side.

She continued running fast as she can manage as she glanced back in front, escaping from the giant Soldier, as he held up his shovel in his hand, ready to attack her when he is closer to her.

“Come back here, you rat!” he bellowed out to her, as he got closer to her.

That made Stephanie run faster than before.

She suddenly tripped and fell down on her front, luckily not chipping a tooth during the process.

Before she could scramble up to her feet, she heard something thwacked across something, making a dull noise along with a crack.

She jolted from the sudden noise from behind her back, and before she could look at what made that sound, something massive struck the ground, causing it to rumble from underneath her body.

She glanced over her shoulder to see what that landed on the ground, only to notice the Soldier’s corpse on the ground.

Noticing that someone was over the corpse, she glanced up at the figure, only to see the other Soldier.

The same one that she saw earlier with the Scout back in the garage.

In his hand was another shovel, decorated in fresh blood from the dead Soldier underneath him, and the front of his uniform coated with dark red blood.

All the color on her face drained when she saw the Soldier.

He sighed after he killed the other Soldier, stepping over the corpse and repositioning his uniform, although covered in blood.

The Soldier glanced up once, before twice, noticing a scared Stephanie on the ground, shaking from head to toe.

After a moment of staring at each other, as she was staring at him filled with fear, as she was shaking from head to toe.

Without warning, he marched right over to her, as she hastily scrambled up to her feet to escape from him, when he quickly knelt down to her, and wrapped his hand around her body, as her arms were out of the top and her legs pinned together.

After he grabbed her into his hand, oddly without hurting her, and lifted her up from the ground.

Her stomach twisted again nervously as she watched the Soldier, not even thinking that he could actually see her from underneath that helmet of his.

Just as she was eye to helmet with him, she felt like she was going to pass out in his hand.

But she instead tightened her grip on his hand, worried about being killed, stomped on, ripped, or anything that could kill her.

She was hyperventilating as she started back at the Soldier, her heart beating as the knuckles of her hands were turning white.

He stared thoughtfully at her for a moment, as she was nervous about what he could be thinking of.

Without a single word, he carefully placed her in a pocket of his pants, and she tumbled deep inside.

She frantically thought of another way to get out of the overwhelming problem that she has gotten herself into.

Outside of his pocket, the Soldier looked slightly worried from underneath the helmet that he is wearing, instead of a dominated look that he had captured a “team member that is dressed in blue.”

The speakers turned on after a click noise came before it and the Soldier glanced up from his pocket, and the voice called out, “ _You failed!_ ”

The Soldier sighed in relief after the call of the victory, knowing they had won the battle.

He marched out of the concrete base and headed directly back toward the wooden base.

He entered the base and walked right by the Scout, without his hat on.

The Soldier noticed that he looked worried, as he ran past him, heading back outside.

Looks like he left his hat outside after he was eliminated from a missile.

He continued walking down the hallway until he approached towards a door, that has a missile symbol above it, that matches the symbol of his uniform.

The Soldier unlocked the door and entered the room.

Inside the room looked almost like the Scout’s room, with the clothes dresser and the bed in the same position, along with the size of the room.

But the decor inside the room is different than the Scout’s room.

An American flag is hanging on a wall above his bed, with the window right next to his bed.

On the left-hand side of his bed on the wall is a shelf filled with magnificent trophies of military goals with medals hanging on the walls too.

On the table on the other side of the room, is another helmet, except this one has a green ribbon around it, with a visible bullet hole on the right side of the temple, piercing through the thickness and has black straps to hold the helmet down on the user’s head.

He walked over to another table than the other one with a different helmet on top and reached back into his pocket that has Stephanie inside.

When Stephanie noticed his fingers were reaching back into the pocket that she is inside, she panicked and curled herself back towards the bottom of the pocket, trying to escape from the fingers that are reaching for her.

Unfortunately, they reached close to her and when they are too close to her for her comfort.

She gently slapped one of the fingers that was getting too close to her body with her right hand and the man outside of the pocket felt the direct slap from her on one of his fingers.

Instead of noticing the slap from her, telling him that it was too close for comfort, he continued reaching for her.

When he is close to her that he can fully feel her against his palm, he gently and oddly carefully wrapped his entire hand around her, carefully lifting her out of the pocket that she is inside, while hearing a muffled yelp from her.

After he lifted her out of his pocket, he noticed that she was trembling from head to toe.

Kneeling down on one knee, he knelt down to the table’s height so that he could see her easier without having to lean over a bit.

He placed his left palm right next to his right hand that has Stephanie inside, as his left acted like a wall for her to lean against.

He opened his right hand to let her out, as she tumbled on the table, as some of her long brown hair covered her face, as she has both of her hands on his left palm.

Using the thumb of his right hand, he gently moved some of her hair from her face, only to see something that made him feel completely worried.

She was crying.

Her cheeks were rosy red, as tears were streaming from her eyes and staining her cheeks while shaking horribly from head to toe.

She was not making any eye contact with him as she was facing down at the table’s surface.

He frowned thoughtfully, not very much, as she watched her crying horribly.

Being careful as he can, he gently moved his hands in slightly, startling her slightly as she glanced up at him, eyes filled with fear as her glasses were fogged.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” the Soldier gently asked, in an oddly low voice.

The seriousness in his voice was replaced with a slightly worried tone, and his right hand was near her body in case she was not calmed down.

The Soldier is not shouting either, but if he did, he would make her deaf.

She did not reply at first until she mustered the courage to speak, but stammered, “P-Please don’t h-hurt me…”

He gently moved his right thumb towards her again while she was not looking.

When she noticed that something was moving towards her from the corner of her eye, she glanced to the left side, seeing his thumb almost close to her face.

She whimpered in fear as his thumb got close to her face, so she glanced away, thinking that he was going to smash her into nothing or snap her neck easily like a twig.

When the tip of his thumb touched her cheek, she mentally prayed to herself that all of this will end sooner or quickly.

Instead, he gently wiped one of the tears away from her face, without accidentally breaking her glasses.

After he had wiped one of the tears away from her face, he slowly moved his right hand away from her sides and stood up from kneeling down on one knee, as his left was still letting her lean against it.

When she noticed that he was standing up, she moved her hands away from his palm, as she sat up straight, still crying though.

After she moved her palms, he moved his left hand from her, as she sat there, halfway kneeling.

To stop herself from shaking, she placed her hands on her forearms, as she still has her head staring down at the surface of the table, shakily breathing in and out of her mouth.

While she was focusing on her focus to stop shaking, she overheard something being ruffled and glanced up from looking down at the table’s surface, noticing the Soldier was looking somewhere for something.

After he had looked around for a moment, he sighed and reached up to his head, underneath his helmet and gently scratched the back of his head, revealing bits of short brown hair, not like the same hairstyle as the Scout, but, different than his hair color.

She still does not see his eyes from underneath the helmet of his since he is facing back toward her with his back, facing towards his stuff on top of his desks or his cabinet.

She shakily glanced around for a moment, before noticing what he was looking for.

The Soldier is looking for tissues for her to wipe her tears away, along with blowing her nose.

They were on the other side of the Soldier, right beside the helmet that the Soldier is not wearing.

He glanced back over to Stephanie and noticed that she was staring off in the distance, so he glanced over at what she is looking at.

The Soldier noticed the tissue box where she was staring at and carefully pulled out a single tissue, without accidentally ripping it.

By how the tissue looked, it looked like a massive blanket that Stephanie had years ago back at her home.

He walked back towards her, oddly not stomping his feet from earlier in the morning when she was with the Scout and gave her the piece of tissue to her.

She watched as he gently reached out to her with his right hand with the piece of tissue in his palm, feeling scared at first.

So she hesitated for a moment.

But, gathering some of her courage, she gently took the tissue from his hand.

After she took the tissue out of his hand, she shakily sighed as she shook uncontrollably in fear.

“There, that isn’t that bad, is it?” the Soldier softly asked, as she glanced up at him.

She slowly nodded her head in agreement with his question and took her glasses off with her left hand.

With her right hand, she gently wiped her tears away with the massive tissue in her hands and blowing her nose.

She is still worried about his trust towards her, trying to generously help her and slowly calming her down from her trauma.

Although he did save her from that other Soldier.

Yet, she does not feel right about being in the hands of a Soldier instead of the Scout’s that she trusts.

She placed her glasses back on her face, although she is still crying, she has the tissue in her hands to wipe the tears away.

“All right, there is one question I want to ask you;” he softly spoke, while grabbing a spare chair of his in the room.

She glanced up at him from the tissue in her hands, her cheeks still rosy and her tears smeared.

He sat down on his chair that he grabbed and placed his hands next to her, although she flinched a bit.

“What were you doin’ in the BLU’s base?” he asked, as he gently curled his fingers around her back.

She was silent for a moment, thinking to herself about why he is being nice to her than what he was acting before, screaming at other people, stomping his feet, and ordering people around.

So, she shakily replied, answering his question, “I-I got l-lost on the battlefield after J-Jeremy accidentally dropped m-me on the ground from his head underneath his hat a-after he was shot from someone o-or from s-something.”

The Soldier listened to every word of her explanation and sighed gently, slightly annoyed at the Scout.

“So, Scout brought you on the battlefield?” he carefully questioned.

“Yes,” she correctly answered, now scared that he is going to get angry at Scout for bringing her on the battlefield.

The Soldier sighed again and placed his right hand on top of his helmet, looking slightly annoyed.

“Next time you’re with Scout, tell him that you want to stay inside his room, instead of goin’ to the battlefield for recent ones like you,” he gently replied.

“I tried to ask him that, but he told me about the spies that lurk from the other base and was worried about me being kidnapped by them,” Stephanie responded, although shaking a bit in fear.

The Soldier went quiet after she spoke and gently sighed the third time in the row.

“A-And he was just worried about me g-getting hurt from any of the BLU team members if I were left in that r-room. I-I’m really sorry for nearly getting hurt in your way.” Stephanie added, stammering a bit in her words as she spoke.

“No, it’s okay. I was actually saving you from that guy,” the Soldier assured, trying his best to calm her down.

He has never met anyone that is this emotional, so, he does not know how to calm her down.

So, he is trying his best to calm her down.

Stephanie shakily sighed in relief that she is not going to get killed because of getting in the way and the Soldier felt more curious about her.

“Has Scout talked to you about your size?” he asked, remembering the Scout touch the side of his hip a couple of times while talking to him.

It confused him because of Scout’s strange behavior.

“Yes, he did a couple of times to me…” she responded, slowly not stuttering in her sentences. “Did he tell you about me?”

“No, he didn’t.” the Soldier answered.

Stephanie shakily stood up on the table, deciding to stretch out her legs from being cramped.

The Soldier held out his hand out to her with his palm up, as a platform for her to travel with him.

“Best if ya stay with me. I don’t want to lose ya to any creatures or any other person that wants to harm ya,” he replied gently, steadily holding his hand out to her.

She slowly nodded her head to his reply and stepped cautiously onto his hand while holding the tissue in her hands.

Just in case of crying again.

He carefully lifted her up from the table and turned around to the desk and carefully placed her on top, as she landed on top of it, sitting down on her bottom as she crossed her legs into criss-cross position.

After she was placed down on the table, he moved away from Stephanie as she glanced away, to change his clothes since they already did war.

Stephanie glanced over to her left, to not look at the Soldier, before noticing the helmet right next to her and the visible bullet hole too.

“Uh, mister? Whose helmet is this?” she asked while pointing at the helmet, glancing back at him.

He glanced over his shoulder to her and noticed the helmet on the desk right next to her and was quiet for a moment.

“It used to belong to a friend of yours?” she asked, trying to change the subject from the helmet.

He still is quiet after she asked a different question.

“I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t ask you that question.” she apologized, stammering a bit.

Maybe she pushed it a little too far.

“I’m usually curious about new things or new people. As usual, ‘curiosity kills the cat.’” she replied gently with a sheepish chuckle as she shrugged her shoulders.

“‘And saves the dog.’” the Soldier mumbled underneath his breath, finally speaking.

They were quiet for a moment before the Soldier sighed the fourth time and took off his helmet, revealing short brown hair, in a military buzz cut.

“If you want to know who that helmet belongs to, you have to be awake to listen to stories.” he politely replied. “Usually whenever I tell stories to people, I dull them that made them either yell out ‘boring’ to interrupt me or fall asleep or pretend to listen to me.”

Stephanie nodded her head thoughtfully, feeling curious about his story of the helmet.

“S-Sure.” she stammered. “I would like to listen to your story. And I’ll stay awake.”

From the corner of the Soldier’s mouth, he smiled a bit when she said that she would love to listen to his story, but before he could turn around and talk to her, the door slammed open, startling Stephanie as she jumped.

From the door frame, it revealed to be the Scout, with his hat in his left hand, and a worried look on his face.

“Soldier! I-!” he stopped in his sentences when he noticed Stephanie on the table, staring back at him as the helmetless Soldier looked like a deer in the headlights.

“You found her?!” he exclaimed in shock and relief. “Oh, thank god!”

“Yes? Why?” the Soldier asked in confusion, as he turned slightly towards the Scout.

From Stephanie’s view, she noticed he has steel blue eye color.

But, she guessed that the other eye is in a different color, which piqued her curiosity.

“I was worried she might get killed by one of da BLU bastards back on the battlefield!” The Scout exclaimed, walking into his room, without closing the door behind his back.

“You dragged her ass on the battlefield!” the Soldier roared in anger as he pointed at him with his right hand, as he placed his helmet back on his head with his other hand.

Right now, Stephanie feels uncomfortable in the room between two loud and arguing giants.

She shakily stood up to her feet while the two were busy arguing at each other about her, not even noticing that she was leaving the two.

Stephanie glanced down in her arms with the tissue, so, she gently folded it like a blanket, and placed it down on the desk in front of her.

She glanced over at the helmet right next to her with the visible bullet hole on the side of the temple and sighed gently.

‘Maybe later I can listen to the Soldier’s tale later.’ She thought to herself, sighing gently in sadness.

She glanced down at the ground, noticing how high up in the air she is.

Stephanie shivered to herself from the image of jumping off the table and landing on the ground, breaking both of her legs or an arm.

So, she stepped back and looked around for a moment, searching for a way down to the ground.

Then, she noticed that there were nicks along the side of the drawer of the Soldier’s desk, and they were deep enough for her to hook her fingers onto and climb down to the ground safely.

She positioned herself after placing a foot on one of the nicks, and slowly climbed down to the ground.

Stephanie slipped a couple of times but did not fall after her foot or hand slipped.

When she reached close to the ground, she carefully jumped down, landing on her feet, as her right hand acted as a pillar to stop herself from falling over.

She stood up from a landing position and walked towards the open door.

Before she left, she heard something in the argument about her that, made her terrified and overwhelmed.

“It wasn’t mah fault dat I almost got her killed!” The Scout exclaimed, defending himself from the Soldier’s rage.

“‘Almost got her killed’ my ass! You dragged her to the battlefield!” the Soldier roared.

“I was tryin’ to keep her safe from the spies!” The Scout defensively yelled. “You know they lockpick the locks!”

Someone came from down the hallway and headed towards the room, as a voice snapped in the distance, “Vhat on earth es going on here, Soldier?!”

Stephanie is now terrified to be in the argument.

She rapidly ran out of the Soldier’s room and went past the Medic, as he was walking towards the room, as she zipped through the hallway, with tears in her eyes, and fogging her glasses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for next chapter!


	4. Chapter 3: The Pyro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie accidently got into a battle with two giants!

Stephanie continued to cry uncontrollably in the spot of where she is.

She is facing back first towards the corner she randomly found while running through the hallway, and decided to stop to take a break.

She was silent as she cried uncontrollably through the countless hours, her legs up to her face, as her hands were on her face, weeping silently to herself as her head is down as her hood was over her head to conceal her face from other unfamiliar people that are walking in the hallway.

While she was crying quietly to herself as the minutes went by, she slowly soothed herself down, calming herself from the arguing, and telling herself that the Soldier was maybe angry at the Scout for doing something rash to her.

She gently wiped one of her tears on her rosy cheeks with her right hand, at the bottom of the palm with her sweater’s sleeve on her palm, while moving her glasses up slightly along with it.

After she gently wiped the tear off of her cheek, the speakers of the whole base suddenly turned on, as the voice called, “ _Mission begins in 30 seconds. The mission begins in 30 seconds._ ”

Panicking, she quickly stood up to her feet after the call ended, worried about being killed by a BLU team member.

Since her encounter with one of them, she has been terrified of being on the battlefield.

She ran down the hallway of the base to look for that hole that she has been through a couple of times while she was wandering around in the RED base.

While she was running through the hallway, she kept an eye out for any wandering team members that could accidentally step on her.

“ _Mission begins in 20 seconds. The mission begins in 20 seconds._ ” the voice repeated through the speakers of the base, grabbing everyone’s focused attention towards the job.

Terrified, she frantically searched for that spot in the walls to hide from the incoming BLU team members, wondering where it is.

Or maybe someone already covered up the hole?

Before she could lose hope, she noticed a spare hat that was lying around in the base, without anyone else looking for it to cover their heads with.

So, she rose the hat up from the ground slightly for her to go underneath, and went underneath, hiding from the team members that are coming through the hallway to their lockers to get ready for the battle.

After she went underneath the hat, she lifted it up from underneath and started to run away, heading towards where she thought would be the Soldier’s room, since he is not arguing with the Scout anymore.

As she continued walking down the hallway, until she accidentally turned a corner, and went past the Soldier’s door, and headed outside.

“ _Mission begins in 10 seconds._ ” the voice spoke, sounding like it is echoing around her. “ _The mission begins in 10 seconds._ ”

She stopped in the middle of the plain, noticing the sudden change of the voice, as she looked confused from underneath the hat.

Deciding to walk for a moment, she took a couple of steps, until she heard the ground underneath her softly crunched like the familiar sounds of the dirt.

She glanced down at the ground to see what she is stepping on, only to notice that it was covered in dirt, instead of wood like the RED base.

Stephanie stopped at her spot for a moment, thinking to herself for a moment, before gasping quietly to herself, glancing back up to the surroundings.

Lifting up the side of the hat, she looked at where she wandered off to, only to notice that she went into the middle of the plain, with no one else around.

‘Oh, crap!’ She cursed to herself in her mind, now knowing why the speakers were echoing when she was walking blindly.

Stephanie thought that she was heading for the Soldier’s room, but know that she noticed that she went the wrong way, she is panicking.

‘I’m goin’ the wrong way! That what’s wrong ‘bout the ground!’ she whined.

She quickly let the hat fall over her body and started to run the right way, before pausing and going the wrong way.

As she was going the wrong way, the voice started to count down to zero, “ _3, 2, 1, begin!_ ”

‘Crap!’ She cursed to herself in her thoughts to herself. ‘I gotta hurry!’

She sped up from her pace and ran straight towards the wrong way again, where she thought the way to the Soldier’s room is.

Stephanie quickly headed for the bridge that leads back to the RED base and went into a different part of the RED base.

When she glanced down at the ground, noticing the concrete underneath her shoes, she gently sighed to herself, relieved to be back on pavement instead of the dirt.

She continued walking towards where she thinks the Soldier’s room is until she accidentally bumped against something hard, but as well as fleshy as a soft pillow.

After she went into the object, she toppled backward after the impact and landed bottom first on the ground from underneath the hat.

She groaned softly to herself in pain from the impact, a slight pain came from her nose, as her glasses were tilted to the side.

“Hmm?” a voice softly spoke from above her, as she tenderly rubbed her nose with her right hand.

She stopped when she heard the noise, feeling both confused and scared at the same time.

Before she could lift the hat up to see what is in front of her, something that is invisible picked up the hat from around her.

She tensed up as she froze noticing that whoever was in front of her, is actually lifting the hat up.

The smell of cigarettes went into her nose, catching her from her problems and towards the odd and familiar scent.

‘What is that smell?’ She thought to herself, as she slightly scrunched her nose in disgust from the smell. ‘Grandma Smoky that I know of, back in Utah smokes too.’

Deciding to see who is in front of her, she glanced up at the figure in front of her, only to see nothing.

Confused, she glanced down at the ground in mild curiosity to see who or what is standing in front of her, only to notice a mysterious shadow in a shape of a man standing right in front of her, as something was reaching over towards her, as if to pick her up from the ground!

Panicking, she scrambled up to her feet from falling over to her bottom from the sudden impact of the object and ran straight towards the table, where she can hide underneath without getting grabbed by that mysterious figure that was reaching down for her.

After she went underneath the table, she heard a soft mutter of something in French, as she was shaking slightly in fear from that sudden figure that was just starting to reach down for her.

Stephanie watched as the shadow started to move towards the front of the table, as she softly gasped, concealing her mouth with both of her hands, to not squeak out in fear or to cry out.

She watched as the shadow moved slowly towards the front of the table, looking closer from where she is.

Stephanie was shaking from head to toe as she watched, her hands covering her mouth from crying or yelling out to the figure to go away.

She is terrified of being captured by someone and getting killed.

For a minute of hiding, the visible silhouette of the person was carefully searching for her, as she hid in the darkness of the corner, mentally praying to herself that whoever or whatever this being could be, that it could not see her and catch her.

Just as things started to get worse for her, a new odor hits her nose, and it was the familiar scent of charcoal, mixed in with the smoke smell from in front of her.

The BLU Pyro!

Now in a tough decision to escape from a BLU Pyro that is heading towards where they are and someone invisible that is looking for her, she decided to take her own risks.

She glanced around the area of where she is, looking for a way to escape from the invisible person, and a spot to hide after escaping.

When she noticed the left-hand side of the table is not surrounded by the mysterious shadow, she decided to take the risk.

So, she quickly ran straight towards the left-hand side of the table, coming into the opening as a different colored blur of blue colors in a unique mix.

As she ran, she heard a loud male’s voice, thick with a French accent, cried out in startlement when she came out from underneath the table, “Sainte merde!”

Ignoring the sudden outcry of the mysterious being that just exclaimed in shock when he or she immediately noticed her, running straight towards the hallway, to escape from the invisible person.

After she escaped from both of the figures, the smells from both of them fading away until she collided into something soft, but rubbery and thick.

She landed on the ground again on her back, wincing to herself as she covered her nose in pain with both of her hands, as her glasses were almost toppled off from her face.

Stephanie closed her eyes as she winced to herself without noticing who the figure she went into is, softly groaning to herself.

After regaining some strength to ignore the pain, she heard a muffled, “Mmm?” from above her.

That voice sounded exactly like the BLU Pyro.

Her heart started to beat quick as the pupils of her eyes went inward, and started to tremble from head to toe.

Slowly, she gently moved her hands from her face, luckily is not bleeding from the direct impact of the rubbery feeling.

Stephanie slowly sat up to her bottom, noticing the same pair of boots, before glancing up at the figure, luckily a RED Pyro instead of the BLU Pyro, staring down directly at her, obtaining a flamethrower in their hands.

She froze in her spot, now terrified to move to get up and run the other direction.

The Pyro did nothing in front of her, just staring down at her, does not know if the figure is either confused or thinking of a way to kill her.

Panicked thoughts entered her mind, her mind screaming at her to move away from this being, and to watch out from being burnt to a crisp.

Before either of them could make a move, footsteps walked towards them, as she flinched, thinking that the noises are from the same invisible figure she encountered.

Each footstep made the ground shake from underneath her, as she glanced over her shoulder to instead see the BLU Soldier, seeing the RED Pyro in front of her, as it glanced up.

He gave out a mighty roar, almost making Stephanie jump from the sudden noise and charged at them while holding a shovel in his right hand up in the air.

A short and surprised muffle came from the Pyro in front of her, as they quickly ducked from the first swing of the shovel, instantly dropping their flamethrower to the ground, and placing both of their hands on the ground.

It was almost too close to Stephanie for comfort, as they were staring at her through the lens, as she thought that she pissed herself.

She decided that right now is the right time to move!

Scrambling up to her feet, she shakily got up and moved away from the Pyro, before something stomped right next to her, causing her to jump back away from the stomp, landing side first on the ground.

She was almost stomped on by the BLU Soldier.

Annoyed about the lack of carefulness around with Stephanie, the Pyro quickly grasped something from behind their back when they rose up from ducking, while the BLU Soldier got ready to strike the Pyro again with the shovel.

Instead, they jumped back after the shovel missed and took out the weapon on their back, revealing a handmade fireman’s ax, wrapped with barbed wire that is holding it together on the handle.

They swung at him with the handmade ax, as he blocked the attack with his shovel.

Scared, she moved away from the two fighting giants by using the palms of her hands and the heels of her shoes, before shakily got up to her feet.

When she got away from the two, she turned around on her heel and ran as fast as she can, without looking behind.

Suddenly, she tripped over something on the ground, landing front first on the ground, with a muffled thump!

After she fell on the ground, she was about to get back up to her feet again, when something huge crashed on the ground from behind her back.

She glanced over her shoulder to see the fighting, but she instead saw the Pyro, standing above the BLU Soldier, with their right foot on top of his helmet, as he was shouting fiercely at them, and cursing at them with extremely foul language that she dares not to repeat herself.

They irritably sighed as they rolled their “eyes” from behind the mask’s lens, annoyed at the stubbornness of the BLU Soldier.

As they were looking out of the hallway, they noticed Stephanie on the ground, inches away from both of them, as she looked at them with terrified eyes.

Instead of getting ready to kill her next, after killing the cursing BLU Soldier underneath their foot, they instead presented a concerned look from underneath the mask, while gazing thoughtfully at her with the black lens, as an “Mmmh.” came from them.

She looked confused after they replied like that, as she felt a little confused, but still terrified about what could happen to the BLU Soldier.

Before they both could say something, the BLU Soldier regained enough strength to push the Pyro’s foot up from their head, as they gave a puzzled “Mmm?” noticing the sudden movement underneath their foot.

Suddenly, the BLU Soldier grabbed the RED Pyro’s mighty ax with is right hand, startling them from being distracted with Stephanie.

They tried to pull their ax away from his grip, but he got up from underneath their boot on the ground to his knees, still pushing back.

Huffing, they pushed forward against his force, until he fully got up, thrusting them to the wall behind their back with their ax against their neck.

They grunted when they were pressed against the wall as the handle of the ax is against their neck.

They pushed forward to force back to move the sharp blade away from their neck to kill them.

As for Stephanie, she slowly got up to her feet from being on her front, trying to escape from the two fighting titans.

But she slipped and flipped over her back while hearing a pair of giant feet heading for her.

She saw the BLU Soldier chasing right after her, holding the shovel over his head to instantly strike her with it to eliminate her.

The Pyro was out in the back, tossed to the ground as they were on their bottom.

She gave out a terrified scream and scrambled backward, trying to push herself away from the figure, as he stopped and held the shovel up over his head as if he was using it like a mallet.

Before she was hit from the shovel, something sliced through something, instantly making her flinch in fear from the noise, as the BLU Soldier abruptly stopped, dropping the shovel from over his head to behind his back.

The shovel clanked on the ground with a dull noise, as blood dripped from the corners of his mouth.

Suddenly, he collapsed on his knees in front of her, as his arms dropped to his sides, getting ready to fall onto his front while she was frozen.

When she noticed that he is going to fall over, she scooted backward to get away from his body.

He landed roughly to the ground as he fell over to the side and not staring at her with his dead eyes.

But stuck in his back, is the Pyro’s ax, logged into their as if he was a piece of log.

She shakily sighed in relief that she is saved from a BLU Soldier again until she heard footsteps heading towards her.

Stephanie stiffened up when she heard the footsteps, terrified to look again at the figure who saved her.

But, she glanced back in front, the familiar smell of charcoal kicked in her scent, to see the Pyro is walking towards her.

She frantically backed up to get away from the scary being that just killed a BLU team member, worried that she could be next in line.

But before she could even get up to her feet, the Pyro quickly knelt down to their knees and reached over to her with both of their gloved hands.

Luckily the hands were not covered in blood to make her even more scared.

They gently scooped her up into their palms, as she instantly gave out a frightened yelp when she was picked up.

Terrified to the point of tears, she started crying again, while she curled in the nightmare’s hands, trying to make herself a small ball.

They gently curled their hands inward more when she curled into a ball, as a protective way to prevent her from falling out of their palms.

She closed her eyes as she cried, feeling scared to her mind that she is going to die.

Stephanie repeatedly wished to herself that she was back in her bed, feeling safe and warm in her mother’s embrace.

“P-Please…” she quietly whimpered, as she sobbed between words, as the Pyro watched and listened to her. “D-Don’t… hurt me…”

A short and sad “Mhh” came from the mask of the being that is holding her in their hands, looking concerned about the crying girl as she continued crying.

They felt stupid to themselves of frightening her almost to death for defending her from a BLU Soldier, which is the same one that almost attacked her when she was saved by the Soldier.

Being careful as they can, they gently moved her to their left hand, as she was still crying.

Using their right hand, they opened a pouch open before carefully slipped her into the open pocket of their jumpsuit’s belt.

The pouch that is in front of their body where they can see her without having to pull her out continuously to see if she is all right and calm her down from the scary interaction.

As they carefully placed her in their pouch, while hearing a terrified squeak escaped from her once she got inside.

After she landed on the bottom of the pouch safely, she was shaking almost to death from her fit, scared to imagine herself as a little pet for them to play with.

When she was placed inside, she noticed the flap that can cover the top of the pouch to keep objects from falling out was unclipped down to protect her, feeling a little calm that she is not sealed in darkness, but slightly startled when the body started to walk, leaving the spot of where they saw her from.

The Pyro walked over to where their ax is and knelt down on one knee, picking up their bloody ax from the ground.

“ _You failed!_ ” the voice spoke through the speakers of the BLU base, letting the Pyro know that they have won.

When the Pyro heard the victory, they sighed through the mask, relieved that they have to go find who is carrying what to the bases.

The Pyro stood up from the ground after picking up their ax and started to walk back to the other base, after exiting out of the BLU base.

As the Pyro walked back to the base while carrying Stephanie in their pouch of the belt, Stephanie felt slightly calmed down by the gentle rocking of the body, but still is terrified that she saw someone being killed right in front of her eyes.

She imagines the rocking was the crib of her bed, when she was a baby, hearing her mother softly humming a lullaby to her as she slept, dreaming dreams of what could happen next in the future.

From the imagination, she felt like she was falling asleep from the rocking, nearly on the verge of entering sleepiness.

After a few minutes have passed, she heard a door being open, snapping out of her imagination and felt the Pyro entered the room, carefully closing the door behind their back.

After the door had been shut behind their back, she heard a muffled but a gentle sigh from them, exhaling in relief.

Now, she felt concerned about what could be inside the Pyro’s room and could be one of the Pyro’s collections of toys.

The flap covering the pouch’s entrance flipped open from outside, as some light went inside, revealing her as she has rosy red cheeks and tears streaming from her eyes.

The Pyro reached their hand inside to retrieve her out.

Stephanie glanced up to see what is going on, only to see a hand reaching towards her from the opening.

She wanted to push the Pyro’s fingers away from her body, and move deeper into the pouch, but she instead limped and allowed the being to pick her up.

At that moment, she was gently scooped out of the pouch of their front pocket, before lifted up to their face, as she just limped, allowing her to be a toy to play around with the Pyro.

They gazed at her with a glum look through the lens of their mask, looking sorry for frightening her almost to death.

Now that she can see the inside of the Pyro’s room, the room looked normal like the Soldier’s and Jeremy’s, except the walls were painted with magnificent rainbows and painted green grass at the bottom.

There were some clouds too, with a couple of lollipops and unicorns.

In the far corner at the right is a brightly painted sun, that illuminates the rainbows, as there was a window over their bed.

The bed, on the other hand, was almost covered in different plushies of unicorns and teddy bears wearing different stitched items on their clothes, as the blankets were in different colors.

She felt… puzzled about the odd and lovely scenery of the room, thinking they might possess other things in the bedroom that might be regarded on the decorative image.

Somehow, she imagines the room as her own, the walls painted with the sky with clouds and air balloons floating into the air.

Then, the Pyro walked over to their bed, snapping Stephanie out of her imagination, feeling scared to be one of their own.

Instead, she was placed down on an empty part of the bed, in front of the Pyro, as she landed on her bottom, halfway kneeling.

The blanket underneath her body is decorated with fire flames that are stitched onto it.

The softness of the bed gently cushioned underneath her minimal weight, as she felt more relaxed than before, but, alerted for any sudden attacks from them without noticing.

The Pyro walked over to the cabinet of their clothes, opening the draw to one of the cupboards, and picked up a box of tissues from inside.

They walked back over to her and knelt down on one knee to her, gently pulling a tissue out of the box without ripping it and holding it out for her to have it.

She gently took the tissue out of the Pyro’s hand, holding it close to her body, as she curled up, crying softly to herself, as a sad “Mmm…” came from them, looking sad and stupid for frightening her like that.

After she calmed down slowly as the minutes slowly passed, as the Pyro gazed at her as she cried, she shakily blew her nose, clearing her nose from the mucus that is blocking her nose.

Then, the Pyro stood up slightly to their height, glancing around, which caused Stephanie to glance up at them.

“Mmm…” they muffled to themselves, thinking of a plan of their own before an idea came to their minds.

With their right hand, they made put up their first finger, as if they are saying “one-minute” to her, while mumbling, “Mh mhmh.”

She slowly nodded her head, understanding what they both said and meant.

Mentally, Stephanie is worried to make a wrong move to make them angry.

After they got a quiet response from her, they stood back up to their feet, and turned their back around to her, and walking away for a moment.

When they were away for a moment, she shakily sighed to herself as she looked down from the Pyro, still shaking from head to toe from the scary encounter.

She heard something rustling, so she glanced up, noticing that they were looking for something.

Then, they picked up something from the desk, and turned back around to Stephanie, as she felt her stomach twist nervously.

They knelt down on one knee and moved their hands over her head to her back, as she thought that she is going to have a dog collar around her neck.

Instead, something draped over her shoulders and covered her back as cloth would do.

She glanced down at her left shoulder, noticing that the Pyro placed a hand-stitched blanket over her shoulders, decorated in various colors of blue, that matches the same pattern of her sweater.

She felt stunned she was given with a blanket, thinking that they were killing machines that only do their job.

With both of her hands, she pulled the blanket up over to the back of her neck, before wrapping it around her front.

The blanket acted as a shock blanket for her to calm down as if she was in the Medic Bay again.

“Mhh, mh mhm mm mhmh?” they muffled, asking her a question through the gas mask, while kneeling back down to her height, with the tip of the gas mask almost close to her body.

She did not know what they said, so, she spoke, although shaking a bit, “I-I don’t understand what you are saying?”

They slightly tilt their head to the side in confusion about her words, until they understood what she meant, so, they made a mention of that if she is okay.

“Oh, am I okay?” she politely asked, as they nodded their head. “Oh, I-I’m… a bit better.”

They nodded their head again as if they understand her words, even though they are wearing that gas mask that could be blocking small noises.

They muffled, “Mh, mh mhh mhmhmhh mh?”

“Err… A little?” she answered gently, making a maybe mention with her right hand. “But, I’m still practicing about learning of what you said, though.”

“Mh, mhmh.” they muffled again, nodding their head once.

She glanced around their room for a moment and said, remarking about the decorations that they decorated, “Well… I see you are a fan of rainbows and cute stuff.”

“Mh mhh.” they muffled as if they are bashful about what she said. “Mh mhh mhh mhhh.”

“I… uh…” she drifted off, thinking of a thoughtful way of saying that she did not see that they enjoyed attractive things instead of the frightening things that could make her worse than she imagined that could be inside. “Didn’t know you liked cute things instead of frightening things…”

“‘Mhmh mhh?’” they thoughtfully repeated.

“Y-Yeah, I don’t mean to be rude and all, but, you did frighten me almost to death back there. I-I didn’t know if you were a BLU. You could’ve hurt me accidentally or on purpose.” she gently explained, as bits of tears streamed.

“Mhh…” they muffled in an agreement, agreeing with her from their lack of carefulness, as they glanced away from her, looking kind of sheepish.

They were silent for a moment, thinking for a second, until Stephanie asked, “Pyro?”

They glanced back at her, replying with an "Mmh?" as they have a curious and puzzled look on their face, gently cocking their head to the side.

“You… never want to hurt me, right?” she slowly asked, feeling like she could trust this being.

The Pyro nodded their head yes, answering her question, as she sighed gently, relieved to get the right answer instead of the wrong one.

After a moment of silence, the Pyro noticed the sun was getting down over the horizon in the distance, while through the window.

They decided to take the day off for now.

When they glanced back at Stephanie, they noticed that she has fallen over to her front, as the tissue was moved to the side.

Worried, they reached over to her with both of their hands, and gently picked her up from the bed, thinking that she passed out from a wound they have not noticed.

After they picked her up, they heard a distant noise that sounded like snoring, that made them stop from checking all over her body.

Confused from the noise, they listened to the noise, until they noticed that the sound was coming from Stephanie in their hands.

Stephanie is sleeping in their hands.

She was snoring quietly to herself, as her glasses almost off of her nose bridge.

A sigh escaped from them, as they were relieved that she fell asleep, but not that quick as they had expected.

With their left hand, they gently took off Stephanie glasses, without breaking them as they placed them on the desk right next to them.

After they took off her glasses, they pulled out a small and silken cushion from the corner of their bed with their left hand.

The appearance of the pillow is in the color of a cyan blue, as the softness of the cushion is average.  
They gently placed her on top of the plush pillow, as she curled slightly into a ball, while they carefully took off her shoes and socks, not even hurting her at the slightest chance.

The Pyro then placed the cushion right next to their bed where they can see her, without any problems with animals or any other people roaming around at night.

Then, they placed the blanket that was left on the bed and placed over her body, as she took the side of the quilt in her hand and sleepily pulled it up to her neck.

After they put Stephanie into bed, they sat down on their mattress, sighing to themselves through their mask.

They watched as Stephanie slept peacefully, without any rash twitching or movement.

She is safe in their hands without anything else to fear about.

At that moment, they reached up to their mask with both of their hand and gently pulled it off of their face, divinely revealing a silhouette someone else’s face, staring thoughtfully at Stephanie with a concerned look in their ruby red eyes, shining in the sunlight.

After gazing thoughtfully at her for a moment, the mysterious person rose from the bed, starting to get undressed from their baggy suit.

When the top slipped off after taking off the boots, the sunlight reveals a slim body, that looked like a female but looked almost male like.

After getting undressed, they went into their bed, gently pulling the covers up above their neck, falling asleep.

The sun went over the horizon and disappeared on the other side, as both the Pyro and Stephanie slept peacefully through the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	5. Chapter 4: The Demolition Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie woke up in the next morning, only to meet the next team member of the group, only to be a drunk person.

The next day, Stephanie was the “first” one to be awake, slowly waking up from her sleep, after being calmed down from her overwhelming reaction when she saw the Pyro killed the BLU Soldier, twice in the row since the first time was the Soldier.

Even now, she feels somewhat groggy from her deep sleep, along with the lack of strength of getting up either.

But she forced herself to get up, despite the lack.

As she slowly got up from the pillow that she was gently placed on top of, she blinked a couple of times to become used to the sun rising above the visible horizon, shining through the window of the Pyro’s room.

She lifted her right hand up slightly to block the light from her eyes, as she blinked a couple more.

She shuffled a bit on the plush cushion, rising up slightly from the fabric cover around it.

Flipping over to her back, she pushed the blanket away from her body, noticing she was still wearing her clothes.

She heard the door opened, so, she glanced over to the left-hand side of where she is on the pillow.

When the door completely opened, the Pyro came into the room, noticing her fully awake on the plush cushion, looking a little groggily from yesterday.

“Mhh! Mh mhh mh!” they muffled as if they noticed she was awake. “Mh mhh mh mhh mhh mh mhmh mh mhh.”

Somewhat confused and groggily, she gently rose one of her eyebrows in confusion, blinking slightly to get the sleepiness feeling out of her head, as the Pyro sighed through the gas mask that they are wearing.

“Mh mhh mhh mhmh?” they curiously asked, noticing she looked groggy.

Maybe it is from sleeping in from the usual time she wakes up.

“Uh…” she paused thoughtfully, unsure about what they said to her. “…Maybe?”

Another gentle sigh came from the Pyro as she got up from the cushion and repositioned herself, as the Pyro watched her preen like a bird, getting her clothes into the position that she had earlier when she first met them.

Although she could not take her mind off about that invisible person that was stalking her in the hallway back at the BLU base.

She wonders who was that figure, and what he, she or they were doing there.

Not only that but the odd and familiar smell of cigarette smoke.

It reminds her of her second grandma but does not meet her usually.

She reaches up to her face, thinking she was also sleeping with her glasses on too but noticed that they were off.

“Anyways, do you know where my shoes and glasses are?” she asked, instantly the curious question in her mind to another direct question.

The Pyro gently nodded their head yes, and made a mention that they had carefully placed the shoes right next to her, so, she glanced over to the left-hand side of where she is standing and noticed her shoes and socks.

Then, the Pyro reached over to the desk and carefully picked up her glasses, as she has her hands out, taking them from them.

“Oh, thank you.” she thanked, as she put her glasses on.

“Mhh mhmh.” they muffled back to her, as if that they granted her thanks.

She translated about what they said to her through the mask and smiled at them.

Even though she knows little about words muffled through objects, she can translate a few.

And from behind the mask, she could tell they were smiling back at her too.

She sat down on the pillow and placed on her socks on first, then her shoes, not even bothering to tie her shoelaces since they were already fastened.

After putting on her shoes, she was suddenly scooped into a rubbery feeling, so, she glanced up at the Pyro, who has her in their right hand, gently holding her like a plush toy, except like what they thought of.

They stood up to their height, while carrying Stephanie in their hand, as she calmly waited for them to stand up fully, although a smidge worried of being dropped to the ground.

Then, she was placed on top of their left shoulder, sitting right next to their gas mask, at the area where their ear is to hear her talking to them.

But, Stephanie wonders how could they listen to her even though they are wearing that mask.

After she had been carefully placed onto their shoulder, they walked out of their room, encountering Scout and the Soldier at the same time.

Luckily they were not arguing at each other.

“Oh, there she is,” the Scout sighed, sighing gently in relief that the Pyro had her the entire time. “I thought dat da cat got her or somethin’.”

“Mh mhh mhh?” the Pyro muffled in confusion.

“Yeah, of course, Mumbles,” The Scout answered to their curious question. “I was da first one dat noticed her.”

“Until you hauled her ass outside into the battlefield.” the Soldier mumbled underneath his breath, not letting go of the moment.

Stephanie shivered slightly at that memory she remembered.

It had nearly killed her.

“Dat was one time!” The Scout protested in annoyance.

“That is what you said earlier.” The Soldier argued back, now sounding annoyed at him.

Exhaling impatiently through the mask, they are annoyed at their bickering, as Stephanie gripped the Pyro’s collar of the suit, scooting closer as a way to say she is uncomfortable with the situation.

The Pyro noticed that look on Stephanie’s face, looking like she was scared, shaking slightly from head to toe.

So they push between the two without a single word, as they finally stopped arguing, as they turned a corner.

Stephanie sighed in relief after they had stopped arguing in the distant.

They walked into another part of the base, going into another room, where there is no one else inside.

From the view inside, it looked like to be the living room, as there is a large, light pink rug in the middle, decorated with some couches and chairs, as there was a table in the back, with chairs along the sides.

From the right-hand side, she noticed there was a kitchen in a separate room, with the living room connected.

The Pyro walked over to the table and stopped in front of it, as Stephanie slid back down to the comfortable position.

After she had moved back into her position, the Pyro reached their hand up to Stephanie and gently wrapped their fingers around her body, lifting her up from her spot.

She felt uneasy as she was lifted up from the Pyro’s shoulder, but relaxed a bit as she was moved to the table.

They placed her down on top of the table, as she landed on her feet instead of her bottom.

After Stephanie was placed down on the table, the Scout and the Soldier followed after the Pyro, not arguing as they entered.

“So, Py,” The Scout began, as the Pyro glanced at him. “What are we gunna do with her? I don’t know ‘bout da rest of the team, but, I supposed we three have to keep her here until her parents come to her when she gives da address.”

Stephanie mentally cringed when he mentioned about the address, as she glanced away from the three, without them noticing.

“Mh mhh!” the Pyro exclaimed in shock, slapping their rubber gloved hand on their forehead, as the Soldier flinched slightly. “Mhh mh mhmh?!”

The Pyro instantly turned the other way around to the Scout from standing in front of Stephanie, with a “concerned” look underneath their gas mask.

“Mhh mh mh mhmh mh mh mhmh mhh?!” they worriedly asked through their gas mask, sounding completely worried about her parents.

“Dat’s da exact problem in my mind!” the Scout agreed with them.

“She still has parents?” the Soldier confusedly asked, tilting his head to the side slightly, sounding confused that Stephanie still had parents.

Stephanie, on the other hand, was not looking at the three, but looking out in the distance, thinking to herself about her parents.

“Of course! If we are able to take her back to da house dat she belongs to, we get hammered by her concerned parents, thinkin’ dat we did dis crap to her!” The Scout explained, thrusting his right hand towards her, as she noticed something from the corner of her eye and flinched nervously in fear, and in startlement.

“Oh, I didn’t think about that.” the Soldier only shrugged, as Stephanie looked unamused, now listening to the conversation, although missed half of it.

“Frickin’ unbelievable!” The Scout sighed impatiently in disbelief, moving his right hand from Stephanie, as she sighed gently to herself.

“Mhmh Mhmh mhh mh mhmh?” the Pyro muffled, catching both of their attention.

Stephanie felt confused about what they muffled about.

“Hardhat?” The Scout asked, sounding confused than annoyed.

‘Who on earth is ‘Hardhat?’’ Stephanie thought to herself in confusion, confused about the team name that they gave to this person.

“Of course, Engie got gizmos ‘n stuff, maybe he can help her grow back to normal size!” the Soldier beamed, instantly getting the plan that the Pyro had in their mind.

Stephanie felt more confused and curious about this strange person named “Engie” and “Hardhat.”

“Yeah, he is da smart one ‘round dis place!” The Scout replied to his idea, finally getting the idea that he has.

Stephanie was going to ask something thoughtful to the little agreement that they are talking about between the three of them, but, instead went quiet, completely shutting down her thought in her mind, thinking that she is only nothing but just an invisible person that they have not seen.

At that moment, the two of them left the room, as the Pyro muffled to her to “stay put on the table” in case of accidentally getting caught by an unknown wandering BLU or worse.

She nodded her head once, understanding the Pyro as they followed after the two, heading towards where ‘Engie’ might be at.

After the Pyro disappeared, Stephanie sighed to herself and placed her hands behind her back, thinking to herself sadly.

She was thinking to herself about her parents, shaking from head to toe as she has a sad look was on her face.

Stephanie remembers her parents in a memory, smiling at her with a happy smile as her little sister was waving to her happily.

But the memory faded when something painful and fearful came after that memory that made her shiver in fear at the terrible memory that came into her mind.

Suddenly, a glass sound clanked from the kitchen, as she jolted, snapping out of her fearful thoughts of the violent past she remembers, startled at the sudden noise that she heard.

She wondered to herself if it is the BLU Soldier, this time, seeking her to satisfactorily complete the wicked deed that he is desperately trying to achieve.

Or could be the same French invisible figure that was observing her at the similar spot where she met the Pyro back at the halls of the base.

She continued standing perfectly still at where she is, fearfully wondering who or what is behind her but stopped herself from looking behind her back, noticing there was no shadow looming over her.

Still worried about who is sneaking around in the room, she smelled the air through her nose, smelling for any aromas of smoke.

As luck would have it, she did not smell any cigarette smoke, nor seeing anyone else around in the area of where she is, so, she sighed gently, relieved that the mysterious figure is not nearby in the area.

Curious about who is around in the area of where she is, she carefully walked over to the table’s edge in front of her and looked around for any signs that someone was here.

Before she could tell herself that nothing is inside and decided to wait for them to come back, she heard the same noises from earlier, the sound of glass clinking against the ground.

This time, it was coming from over in the kitchen counters, and soft mumbling too sounded drunk with alcohol that the mysterious figure is sipping.

A brown beer bottle suddenly rolled around from the corner of the kitchen counter that was blocking the mysterious figure’s form that was behind it, and it looked like it was opened from someone.

There is someone behind there is still there, drunk from drinking all of that alcohol.

“Err…” she began speaking towards the hidden person, worriedly wondering if the mysterious figure is a BLU, but regarding on her thoughts, she called out to the being, “Hello? Is anyone there?”

Something clicked on the ground, at the familiar sound of something glass too, like the beer bottle she had seen earlier that was gently rolling in the direction of the table that she was placed on top of.

The sound of something getting up from the ground by the clicking of the heels, walking towards her voice that she called from, as she softly cursed at herself from her stupidity for calling the mysterious figure.

She is fearfully thinking to herself that the mysterious figure might be to be a drunk BLU team member that decided to drink alcohol since they are losing to the team she is with.

But, to Stephanie’s mental relief, it was a team member of the same team she is with, except different from the other five team members that she had met earlier in the week.

This person has dark coffee skin color, black, short, and slightly curly hair, and one eye that is in a light gold color, looking pretty drunk, as he slightly wobbled side to side, and in his right hand is carrying a brunette beer bottle, almost like the other brown beer bottles that her Father has back at home, drinking.

He is wearing a red shirt with a single bomb symbol to his forearms like how the other symbols are like to the Medic that she noticed, that has a turtleneck and shoved into his red pants.

Not only he is only wearing that cherry red shirt, but he is also wearing a white undershirt underneath, as the sleeves are almost down to his wrists.

His pants are shoved into his black combat boots, like how some recent team members that she met have in common.

When they caught sight of eyes, well, eye, since he only has one eye only instead of two from maybe an unfortunate accident or something heroic.

They were staring at each other, as for Stephanie, on the other hand, looked uneasy as he stared at her, thinking he does not notice her because of how drunk he is.

Or maybe he does?

He blinked once in bewildering confusion until he wobbly moved his left hand up, pointing drunkenly at her and said soberly, in the same Irish accent that Stephanie had heard during on the battlefield, when the Medic saved her, except drunk from the alcohol that he drank.

“What is a wee lass doin’ ‘ere? Don’t ye know that wee bairns aren’t allowed ‘ere?” he mumbled.

She was confused about his question about her size, wondering why he has mistaken her for a “bairn.”

And what does “bairn” stand for?

She was going to go silent after he asked but instead responded to his question, calling him over to where she is standing, although worried about his reaction.

“Uh, it is best if you come over here, mister!” She anxiously called over to him, as she waved her hand to him. “I’m actually not that big where you are standing at.”

Her stomach twists anxiously, feeling unsure about her slight trust towards him.

Blinking again, he wobbled over to where she is, as she backed up slightly so that he would not collapse on her if suddenly passes out.

While he is wobbling over to her, she stood at the spot she is at, as she did not flee once he was close to her.

He pulled out one of the chairs from in front of Stephanie, and sat down on the seat, noticing she is not a “bairn” like how he pronounced about her and looked more puzzled and bewildered, as well as still drunk.

“You’re…” he paused, as he blinked in confusion and bewilderment.

Now that Stephanie can see him better, he has an eye patch in the color of black, concealing his left eye from something that took out his eye from a fierce battle.

“Actually that short?” he finished, taking a swig of his drink.

“Uh… Yeah, I am.” Stephanie nervously spoke, carefully taking a small step towards him, still alert for any sudden grabs coming from him. “Are you… always like this, mister?”

“Aye, lass…” he drunkenly answered, sipping another swig of the alcohol he has in his hand. “I always ‘ave.”

She paused thoughtfully for a moment, thinking to herself as he noticed her look on her face, as he stopped for a bit.

Stephanie looked… sad because she recalled a heartbreaking memory that came into her thoughts.

Did someone died back at home or did someone broke up with her before she came to the base?

“Lass did somethin’ ‘appened while back ‘ome?” he asked, taking another swig of his drink.

She snapped out of her daze of the memory in her mind, glancing up at him and gently sighed through her nose.

“No, not really…” she paused thoughtfully, wringing her slightly shaking hands a bit. “Truth to be told, I miss Marysville.”

He glanced down at her after taking a swig of his drink, looking curious about her answer to his concerned question.

“You live in Marysville?” he curiously questioned, sounding curious.

“Yeah, I am an American,” she answered, gently shrugging her shoulders a bit. “And uh, what’s your name, I’m sorry that I haven’t properly introduced myself.”

He gently smiled at her kindness and sat up properly, his beer bottle in his right hand still.

“Th’ others called me the Demoman, but th’ real name that I have is Tavish Finnegan DeGroot.” he introduced himself.

Lightly smiling, she introduced herself politely, as she placed her right hand against her chest, bowing slightly to him, “My name is Stephanie, Stephanie Nova Rose Allen.”

“It is a pleasure to meet ya, Stephanie,” he replied gently, taking another swig of his drink.

She cautiously crept closer to him like a deer, alert for any sudden grabs from him or from someone else that came out of the middle of nowhere.

Once she got close enough, she stopped again, her palm that was against her chest is now holding her left hand, as she was shaking a bit.

“Uh, Travish?” she carefully questioned, feeling curious about what a Demoman is precise. “What is a Demoman and what is “Demoman” short for?”

“Full of questions aren’t ya?” he politely asked, as Stephanie glanced away from him, blushing slightly in embarrassment.

He placed his beer bottle right next to him, where he can grip it and drink it between talking to her while explaining to her about what a Demoman is.

“Well, th’ first one to answer that question is that a Demoman is short for Demolition Man, so, they’ve shortened it to Demoman,” he explained, as Stephanie listened to him talking, not even looked bored. “Which is the team name that th’ Administrator gave me, and a Demolition Man is an excellent man in explosions and that man is me.”

“So, a Demolition Man is like you, and they are good at explosions?” she curiously asked, explaining what he said in her own words.

“Aye lass,” he answered, reaching over to his bottle and picked it up, taking another swig of his drink.

After taking a sip, he placed it on the table, away from her without accidentally hurting her.

“And for me, I am one of those Demolition Mans.” he smiled.

“You are?” she eagerly questioned, walking around his left arm, that is the size of a tree, that is lying on their side.

She sat down on the table, right next to his wrist, as her knees are up to her chest.

“What type of bombs do you use to fight or destroy things?” Stephanie curiously asked, feeling trusting towards him, although a little skittish from his size and what he could do to her.

“I use sticky bombs ‘n grenade launcher to defeat those arrogant BLU bastards!” he exclaimed triumphantly, thrusting his right hand up into the sky, as his left arm is on the table right behind her back. “They kept comin’ ‘n we kept fightin’, while you get th’ briefcase since yer that small!”

She fell silent after he spoke about her, thinking to herself for a moment, thinking to herself about the BLU team and felt more curious, as well as confused.

But as well as embarrassed too.

Does he believe she is a new team member of the team?

“Uh, I’m not a new team member, Travish, I’m actually a civilian that is a little lost,” she spoke up from being quiet the whole time, listening to his explanation about a Demoman.

While she was speaking, he picked up his bottle again and took another swig of the beer.

After she told him about her correction that she is not a member of the team; he nearly choked on his drink in shock, spitting a bit of the beer in his mouth, luckily, away from her body that is close to him.

She flinched when he started coughing, curling up into a ball as his arm moved close to her from behind her back as if he is covering her from his sputter.

Then, he coughed a couple of times, moving her head down and away from the table.

“Yer a civilian?” he hoarsely asked, glancing back at her, after clearing his voice from choking on a couple of swigs of beer.

“Uh, yeah, I am a civilian,” she responded to his confused question, while she nervously shrugged her shoulders. “I didn’t sign up for anythin’.”

“Then what th’ bloody ‘ell are ye doin’ ‘ere, then?!” he exclaimed in mild shock, as she jolted from the rise of his voice. “You might get killed by th’ BLU bastards!”

“I… can’t ‘member how I got here, Travish. I only ‘member a little back at home, but that’s all I ‘member!” she explained, feeling worried.

He fell silent after she explained and felt confused, so, he put his beer bottle on the same spot where he placed it earlier.

The bottle was away from Stephanie where she would not go into it on accident or purpose when she gets up from the table, and it was only at his arm’s length to sometimes drink during their explanation.

She feels nervous about what he is doing, as well as feel trapped as his other arm came over to his other arm, blocking the way out, as she felt trapped like a small mouse, that is wearing clothes like how humans would wear.

“Alright, lass,” he spoke, sitting up straight in his chair where he could observe her and talk to her without having to look down at her at counter length or having to prop his chin on the table to freak Stephanie out more to be worried. “Explain everythin’ to me ‘bout yer past.”

Slightly shaking from head to toe as she just sat there in her spot, her back facing his wrist, as she felt her stomach once against twist nervously.

She sighed through her nose, knowing he would not let her go until he understands what happened to her and how she got here without any signage from the Administrator.

“I…” she began speaking, bit pausing in her words, remembering the terrible moment in her mind.

Everything was coming back to her to be terrified of what happened and to force her to change her mind from the painful memory and lie to him about what happened.

But, she stopped herself from lying and continued talking, although with paused a couple of times in her sentences.

“I only ‘member I was runnin’ away from a machine, through a green part of the woods of Marysville, just runnin’ away from it, as it chased me in the woods,” she shakily explained, as she placed her hands on her forearms. “Tryin’ to see if it could capture me to kill me like what happened to the rest back at home, and I didn’t know if it wanted to catch me or not, so, I ran away from it, tryin’ to be alive.”

“I… continued to run through the forest, not even botherin’ to stop to take a breath or get a drink of water from my water bottle in my backpack.” she shakily continued, mentioning to her backpack that she has with him.

But, she left the backpack back at the Soldier’s room.

The Demoman listened to every word that she explained, noticing she was on the verge of breaking down in well-founded fear from the terrible memory in her head.

“Then, I don’t know why, but, the machine stopped chasing me in the forest, I think it had lost sight of me, and I was going to stop to take a breath and a drink of water,” she continued, sighing to herself. “Suddenly, I tripped over something on the ground and struck my head against something metallic and hard, thus the injury on my head that your Medic took care of at the day when I first got here.”

“And what day is that?” he curiously questioned, feeling curious about what day she suddenly came.

“I… don’t know,” she answered, thinking to herself about what day she came.

She gently moved her hand up to her right temple, the same exact spot where she hit her head onto the metallic object that was on the ground, that made her small and into the middle of the plain.

“I think it was a week ago, maybe three days ago?” she guessed, sounding unsure to herself.

Feeling more curious, he asked, “May you continue th’ story?”

“Sure, I can finish it,” she nodded, moving her hand away from the right-hand side of her temple. “Then, I woke up here, in the middle of the battlefield, my temple bleeding slightly and looking confused. Not only that but shrunken down at 6 inches and genuinely terrified to death.”

After she had completed the story, she placed her shaking hands together, shaking down to the bone about her terrible memory of the violent past.

“Not only that I am terrified, lost and confused, I feel like I am not around here anymore. Like… no one even noticed me because of the lack of size and bravery.” she added, sounding glum.

The Demoman looked concerned about Stephanie, worried that she had to go through all of that and most likely had to be scared almost to death of all of what is going on around her, without even getting hurt from both the RED and the BLU team.

Being careful as he can, he slowly moved his left hand towards her, trying not to hurt her by any chances.

After his palm is behind her back, he gently moving his ring finger and pinky carefully around her front, as his middle digit is right next to her, as a possible way to ease her down from being on the verge of crying.

“Lass, it’s okay, I understand.” he soothed, feeling sorry for her.

She glanced up at him in the eyes, as she placed both of her hands on the tip of his middle finger.

When she placed both of her hands on his finger, he felt her shaking.

“You are lost and scared. We’ll help you get back to Marysville.” the Demoman softly spoke, as the shaking was slowly dying out.

Feeling warm and young again, she leaned into his fingers that are gently wrapped around her body, as the Demoman moved his palm more into a sideways cup position, to take in her body.

She sighed gently, calming down slowly by herself with the help of the kind and gentle Demoman.

“Thank you, Travish.” she softly thanked, feeling protected from him.

“Yer welcome, wee lass.” he granted, now not sounding drunk.

Soon, the Pyro, the Soldier, and the Scout came back into the room that the two of them are inside and the Demoman glanced up from gazing down at Stephanie, noticing the three.

At first, he felt worried about their reactions to him talking to someone “invisible” and thinks he might be talking to a Spy.

Luckily, his arm was covering Stephanie on the other side of her, as she looked confused about who he is looking at.

From the Demoman’s view, the Scout noticed him as she mentally cursed to himself in Gaelic.

“Demo?” The Scout was the first one to speak in confusion, breaking the ice between the two of them. “What are ya doin’ here? And where’s Steph?”

“You know her?” he asked, now confused.

“Well, yeah, she wandered into us while in da base.” the Scout responded, explaining some of it.

The Demoman was confused to ask another question, but stopped himself, deciding to trust the three.

But alert for any signs that they are not the team members.

Carefully as he can, he slowly moved his arms surrounding her body, revealing the small girl sitting in front of him, while she glanced cautiously over her shoulder to see who entered the room, only to instantly notice the three of them that she met.

“Oh, hi guys.” she greeted, altering her mood from earlier.

“Hi.” the Scout greeted back, sounding perplexed and confused, as the Pyro walked over to her, carefully checking if he did something wrong to her. “Demo, did you do somethin’ to her while we were talkin’ to Engie?”

“No, lass,” he answered, as she stood up from the table. “I was just talkin’ to ‘er, ‘n she told me everythin’ back ‘er past, except the part of how she got ‘ere.”

“Mhh. Mhmh.” The Pyro muffled, sounding like they understood what he said gently. “Mhh, mh mh mhh mhh?”

“She said she lived in Marysville,” he responded their question.

“‘Marysville?’” The Scout repeated in confusion and mild shock. “Dat’s in Washin’ton!”

“Then, let’s take her there!” The Soldier spoke, smirking slightly.

“Or we keep ‘er ‘ere until she turns back to normal after Engie makes the machine.” the Demoman gently prodded, making a gesture of staying here.

“‘Bout dat…” The Scout spoke, sounding uneasy and nervous at the same time.

Stephanie mentally felt her stomach nervously clench.

“What?” The Demoman confusedly asked.

“Da Engineer said dat makin’ a machine to reverse someone’s height will take days or months or years to complete and tested, and probably make a problem if not tested or made in a single day,” he explained, sounding nervous.

The Demoman felt a bit of hope gone out, but he is still determined to help her get back to normal.

Stephanie gently sighed to herself without anyone noticing, knowing there is no way to reverse this.

“What ‘bout this Measermus person?” The Demoman prodded again, shifting the subject of science to a different idea.

The name “Merasmus” confused Stephanie as she listened to the conversations.

“Are ya kiddin’ me?!” The Scout exclaimed fiercely in shock, instantly turning towards him.

Stephanie flinched when he exclaimed.

“Dat man dat is dressed in a dress?! Hell no! He is a freak of nature and can make other horrible things dat might give us nightmares!” he snapped.

“So? He is a powerful magician!” The Soldier prodded. “He can make her big with his magic!”

“Hell no!” The Scout spoke sternly, putting his foot down. “We are not findin’ dat creepy guy!”

The three of them got into an argument, as Stephanie felt an urge inside of her, telling her to walk away from the group.

She listened to the urge inside of her, so, she was going to walk away from the argument, when the Pyro gently scooped her up from the table from behind her back, as she softly landed on their palm bottom first.

She was going to panic from the sudden movement from behind her, but instead stopped herself, realizing the feeling was the Pyro.

Stephanie quietly changes her posture from draping her legs over the side of the hand, to criss crossing her legs in front of her.

The Pyro might have noticed the uncomfortable look on her face when they started arguing and decided to take her to their room, far away from the arguing group so that she would not get into one of her emotional breakdowns again.

Now, they need to find out where her home is inside Marysville and who are her parents and to be more relieved, if they are still alive since a “machine” was on the loose back at her home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	6. Chapter 5: The Heavy Weapons Guy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie got bored on a boring day, so, she decides to eat something, until she went into another person.

 

The next following day, Stephanie was still staying inside the Pyro’s room, looking slightly bored and irritated at the same time.

Apparently, she positively hates being merely bored, and the annoyed look means that undoubtedly because it bothers her.

There she is, settling down comfortably on the floor right next to the plump pillow that the Pyro loaned to her for her to sleep, looking merely annoyed.

She boredly sighed, knowing precisely that pouting in the room while waiting patiently for something magical to happen naturally instantly wouldn’t in fact help at all.

She stood up from the ground at where she was comfortably sitting at, gently stretching out her limbs from being stiff of sitting comfortably, as she straightened her back.

Stephanie felt rather famished from not eating anything that is left over at the base that the rest of the team members had not eaten before, so, she unanimously decided to eat something before she gets more hungry.

Stephanie got up from the ground, wisely deciding to possible adventure around in the base that she is inside, carefully seeking out for the unfamiliar room that she hasn’t seen before when she first came here and to get her mind off about her boredom.

She walked out of the opened door of the Pyro’s room, heading for the living room that she was inside before, naturally wondering what was behind those kitchen counters, feeling slightly tired from running towards that area, but, feeling hyper to get energy, she typically continued to run in the direction of that area that she remembered correctly, but slightly since she slightly has short-term memory.

She carefully continued searching for that same room that, she was with the Demoman keeping an eye out for any unfamiliar team members or BLU team members that might be lurking around in the base to look for her or look eagerly for considerable trouble, until she instantly reached the area, instantly noticing the same table that she had talked gently to the Demoman earlier.

She willingly goes into the modern kitchen, instantly noticing the kitchenette was empty, so, she directly entered, only to unexpectedly go into something rubbery and soft.

Stephanie suddenly wheeled backward when she went awkwardly into the odd feeling, landing back on the concrete ground, bottom first, softly stroking her face in genuine confusion, gently rubbing the mild pain away lightly.

Stephanie carefully looked at the unusual object that she typically went into, instantly noticing the item was undoubtedly a modern boot and the boot rightfully belongs to someone big, bigger than she expected to see.

Someone more undoubtedly taller than the rest of the team members that she had met before this giant.

Someone that she had exactly met before, except scared half to death at that exact moment.

Gradually, she looked up towards the reasonable person that she went directly into, except a normal glance up at a “familiar” giant that she had met, she looked up farther up than before, almost feeling like she has a neck crane from gazing up too high until she stopped instantly at a considerable height, where her flexible neck, along with her back was craned up into the air, where she can undoubtedly see whoever is above her and who was definitely standing in front of her.

The person that she went carefully into was the same exact man, what exactly died in front of her when she first got her, towering like a giant building before her, confronting the counter of the kitchen, looking thoughtful like he was making something, as she was just standing right next to his foot that she went directly into, not even bothering to look to the side to notice her standing there like a small mouse.

Genuinely feeling her heart beat faster in genuine fear, worried that he might instantly notice her and well, brutally murdering her, but instead, he looked down at the ground, feeling like a small pair of eyes anxiously watched him, just like what her modern thoughts came into her mind, and she instantly froze, her pupils dilated, scared to death that she would move a possible inch, he would very instantly kill her right in the spot, as she simply stood there, shaking uncontrollably in her shoes.

But rather of getting killed instantly, the tremendous titan that she typically encountered instead knelt down on one knee, being careful to not frighten her by his enormous size, as she flinched, startled at the sudden movement of the towering giant, suddenly going down towards her, thinking frantically she accidentally immediately made a wrong move.

They merely stared at each other in the eyes, as she frantically believed what this mighty giant might do to her that entered her mind in bunches of anxious thoughts and how did he undoubtedly returned to the living when she absolutely sees him die instantly in front of her eyes.

Suddenly, he made the first move, gently moving his right massive hand down towards her, and she felt like she was a small mouse compared to him, since she is precisely at the considerable size of 6 inches, as she instantly gave out a startled yelp, falling backward in the direction of the concrete ground, but landed in the mighty giant’s enormous hand, and she is undoubtedly the exact size of his ring finger.

Shaking uncontrollably from head and toe, she softly wound her arms around the giant’s thumb, worried about getting instantly dropped to the ground like last time of how the Scout instantly dropped her, worried to death about getting hurt from him too, as the massive giant gently picked her up from the concrete ground.

As she was being lifted upward from the concrete ground, she can feel her heart beat faster at each level raised up from the land, frantically thinking of a way out of this terrible mess and what the hell is the mighty giant going to do precisely to her when he instantly gets her up on the kitchen counter.

Maybe devour her?

She shivered uncontrollably in genuine horror as she reluctantly forced the frightening thought away from her mind, desperately trying to naturally think of other thoughts to soothe herself down from her genuine fear.

When she instantly reached the kitchen counter, she was softly placed back down on the polished surface of the counter, as she lightly seated on top of the polished surface, gently holding her hands together to stop herself from shaking too much, worried to instantly reveal her genuine fear in front of the mighty giant to show she is truly scared of him, to make him feel proud about himself and undoubtedly continued to genuinely frighten her.

The mighty giant noticed how scared she is, so, he instead paid no considerable attention to her and went back about making a delicious sandwich, carefully slicing the savory cheese in half without cutting his tree trunk sized gentle fingers, spreading mayo on the savory bread and satisfactorily completing it with a small olive on top of a toothpick on other sides.

Instead of contentedly munching the appetizing sandwich in front of her, he instead took out a clean knife, as she instantly froze in the spot of where she is precise, severely shaking a little more, but instead of getting grabbed and sliced, he instead cut his delicious sandwich in half diagonally, one half for him as the other half was for her.

“Leetle mouse may be hungry.” the mighty giant softly spoke, his gentle voice thick with a Russian accent, but, humble too, startling Stephanie as she slightly jolted, startled that the gentle giant started to talk gently. “Es not kind to eat sandvich in front friend without manners.”

Feeling confused, she politely asked, stammering slightly, “W-Why? I-Isn’t it yours? You made it, you go ahead and eat it.”

“Нет.” the giant Russian softly replied, saying “no” in fluent Russian, gently moving the delicious slice of the classic ham sandwich towards her, as she felt like it was undoubtedly the size of a log. “You eat. You hungry.”

She instead went silent, thinking to herself about the giant Russian, about why he is kind towards her, but, in lieu, her hunger took over her modern thoughts, and she ate in silence, heartily enjoying the delicious slice of the classic sandwich to herself, as the enormous Russian typically completed his delicious slice, keeping an eye on her too.

After they both had finished the savory sandwich together, the giant Russian was sufficiently impressed that Stephanie actually finished the whole slice without instantly getting a stomach ache of eating a couple of delicious bites compared to him.

“Leetle mouse es hungry.” He softly spoke, sounding amazed.

“Yeah… I haven’t eaten anythin’ when I first got here a… A week ago, I think, I’m unsure…” she spoke softly to him, after softly wiping a small spot of homemade mayonnaise off her lips with her tongue.

Feeling curious, he gently reached over to the small girl, scooping her up into his massive palm, as she jolted in startlement from the sudden touch underneath her, lightly scooping her up from the kitchen counter to his mighty chest.

She gently gripped the first leading digit of his massive hand, as a way of being a protection bar of a platform, except that moves and soft for her to sit comfortably, as his gentle fingers softly moved in as more bars to protect her from falling instantly off his palm.

He cautiously moved her towards his mighty shoulder, where she could be protected too, so, she gently crawled onto his mighty shoulder, right next to his ear where he could listen carefully to her talking gently and make sure she doesn’t fall off without instantly noticing.

After she had been comfortably seated onto his mighty shoulder, he walked out of the modern kitchen and down the hallway, towards a room, where his official symbol was on top of the door frame, the same exact symbol of his own.

He unlocked his door to his room, carefully entering his room while carrying Stephanie on his shoulder and inside was like the identical size, except feeling considerably smaller than his considerable size, but his decent bed and wardrobe was big like him, except big enough for his clothes to be inside and for him to sleep inside too, if he wanted too that is.

“Is… this your room?” Stephanie gently asked, curious about the unfamiliar room that she cautiously entered.

“Да. Es room,” he answered gently, gently setting her down on the small table right next to his cleared table, where his modern lamp was on top and gently took off his vest that was typically covering his red undershirt. “Small for me, but es good.”

She sweetly smiled and thoughtfully nodded her head, fondly recognizing her room that she has back at Marysville.

It was small like how she fondly remembered, only a bit of the memory but, it was snug for her to relax in.

As she sat there, looking curious, she naturally wondered about his official name, so, she politely asked, “Mister? What is your name? My name is Stephanie, Stephanie Nova Rose Allen.”

He glanced back towards her, looking curious, so, he answered gently, in fluent Russian to her, “Михаил Велес, which mean, Mikhail Veles or Misha.”

She softly smirked at his official name, and said gently, humbly asking about his affectionate nickname in piqued curiosity, “‘Misha.’ That means ‘bear’ right?”

“Да,” He answered again in fluent Russian. “You American?”

“Yeah, I am,” She correctly answered, as she carefully observed him took out an enormous book that is thick enough to squash her like a discovered bug or to instantly make her flat like a bookmark.

She softly shivered at the terrible memory in her mind, typically forcing the negative thoughts away in her mind, but, merely managed to ask a question to him.

“Do you… hurt people by any chance?” she softly asked, sincerely hoping to not get the incorrect answer.

He stopped instantly for a possible moment, gently holding the book in his hand for a memorable moment, before naturally turning towards her, as she shivered in genuine fear at the disordered imagination in her mind.

“Нет, I don’t hurt woman,” he answered politely, gently shaking his head once side to side. “Never hurt woman in life. Hurt baby man instead.”

Curious, she politely asked, “Who’s the ‘baby man’?”

A soft chuckle naturally came from him, his mighty shoulders gently moving up and down as he giggled softly.

At that memorable moment, he walked over to the decent bed that he typically has, sitting down on top of it right next to Stephanie, as it gently creaked underneath his considerable weight.

“‘Baby man’ es Lettle Scout,” he answered gently.

“Oh,” she spoke gently, understanding who the person is that he beats up. “Why on earth?”

“Make fun of weight,” he answered grimly, sounding slightly grumpy. “Heavy hates it.”

“I understand.” She softly spoke, comprehensive understanding about him. “I was slightly made fun of because of my size.”

He glanced thoughtfully at her with a puzzled look on his familiar face, and she gently sighed.

“I was not at this size, but, your size, except 5’0.” she politely returned his puzzled look, gently explaining what she typically meant. “My sister was taller than me, so, she kept makin’ short jokes.”

“Why?” he asked curiously. “You should slap sister for making fun of you. If brother, a punch would work.”

“I never actually have punched anyone in my life. Gently slapped yes, punched, no, not really,” she answered thoughtfully. “I just don’t want to become someone else than myself and add; I actually don’t have a brother.”

“Имеет смысл.” he quietly whispered, in fluent Russian.

She felt genuinely puzzled about what he said thoughtfully in fluent Russian, but, shrugged it off her shoulders, popularly knowing she can’t translate what other people said in other modern languages.

At that moment, the gentle giant gently moved his enormous hand towards her, as she justly expected a sudden grab from him, but instead, he gently moved his hand right in front of her as a movable platform for her to climb carefully on top of, instead of getting grabbed from him.

Relieved that she didn’t get grabbed, she instead climbed onto the gentle giant’s gentle hand, sitting comfortably in the middle of his palm, waiting patiently for him to move cautiously, her somewhere else where he could keep an eye on her, without any economic problems of getting instantly caught by someone else that he didn’t notice.

Instead of being placed somewhere else, she was soft and carefully placed on top of his mighty shoulder again, right next to his ear where he can overhear her talking gently to him and to see what he is reading.

But, the words are in Russian, and she gently sighed, popularly knowing she had to read in Russian over his mighty shoulder.

“Heavy read book for you,” he spoke gently, pointing to the book’s cover. “Heavy’s favorite.”

“Really?” she politely asked, sounding curious. “But, Heav, I can’t read Russian. I’m sorry.”

“Нет, don’t be sorry.” He softly spoke to Stephanie. “Heavy read for you.”

She felt genuinely shocked when he softly assured her, and she sweetly smiled.

“Alright, I would love to hear what this story is about,” she spoke gently, gently laying on her stomach to be comfortable.

A gentle smile tugged against his lips, so he gently smiled, feeling happy that she understands his kindly feelings and listens carefully to his gentle words instead of conveniently ignoring him like one of the team members.

“Да, let’s read.” he softly replied, unanimously agreeing with her.

Therefore, he instantly began eagerly reading the first chapter of the story, reading in Russian first, then repeats himself in broken English, the best as he could.

But, Stephanie properly understood him, so, she was patient, listening to him read in both Russian and repeats gently in modern English for her to properly understand what he is saying thoughtfully.

They continued thoughtfully reading, as Stephanie listened happily, patiently listened to the Heavy’s reading, feeling happy to listen eagerly to someone reads a unique story to her, although her dear Mother once read to her, except to stop instantly in the middle of the unique story when Beck just decided that this is boring when Stephanie genuinely wanted to hear the story ends.

But, now, she has the chance to listen smilingly without any social problems, happily listening to him read his own favorite story that he genuinely likes to read on a dull day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	7. Chapter 6: The Engineer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephanie apparently got lost and met someone new...

The next following day, Stephanie apparently got lost while walking through the walls of the base, carefully seeking for more rooms that she hadn’t noticed when she initially entered one of the places.

She doesn’t know where she is precisely and had never entered this place before.

As she continued walking carefully through the walls of the RED base in narrow hallways, she walked over to a visible hole in the wall, instantly noticing that some visible light was shining through the hole, from the other side of the wall, from the faint luminous lights of the base.

Curious about the visible lights shining slightly in the room that she merely noticed, she gently squeezed through the visible hole, feeling a little proud when she suddenly became skinny when she carefully looked in the polished mirror in the Pyro’s room, checking herself for any unusual changes that occurred instantly to her, or what happened when in the modern battlefield that she didn’t instantly notice.

Not only that, but also observing the sudden change of her eye color as she was staring in the mirror in the Pyro’s room.

Earlier, before she even got knocked out, her original eye color had been a light hazelnut eye color before she was on the modern battlefield of the RED and BLU base, until her sudden change after she was knocked out and came back around, her eye color suddenly changed into steel blue.

After popping out of the other side of the wall, instantly noticing the private room that she popped into was undoubtedly a workroom, decorated with various modern technologies, modern machines, economic blueprints, and essential tools for working on modern machines.

Everything around her looked normal, but yet, odd to her feeling in her heart, she feels like this is normal to herself that she is looking thoughtful at.

She felt awed about the giant technologies around her that seemly to be towering over her like buildings back at home, and she felt like she is shrunken down almost down to a considerable size of an ant by the unusual feeling that she undoubtedly felt.

Suddenly, she instantly heard ground shaking familiar footsteps naturally heading towards where she is precisely so, she hastily hid behind one of the metal table’s legs, sincerely hoping the unknown giant or giantess wouldn’t notice her standing behind one of the legs, luckily, thick enough to cunningly conceal her discovered body.

As the giant footsteps came closer, she peeked around the corner of the leg, she was hiding behind, to only see a giant, intentionally walking through the room while carrying an economic blueprint in his right hand, while merely looking at it, distracted by the notice of a small borrower standing behind a table leg.

He walked over to the metal counter that she is standing underneath the cleared table, luckily not noticing her standing there in front of him underneath the cleared table.

While he stood at ease in front of her, as she naturally felt her heart beat slightly faster, genuinely worried that if she typically moves from underneath the counter, he would instantly notice her and instantly capture her like a rodent that just came into the room.

From looking keenly from underneath the cleared table, she could slightly recognize what he looks similar from standing underneath.

The gentle giant has fair skin color and no hair from underneath the modern helmet that he is wearing to proactively protect his head from falling debris or objects inside his workroom, and his eye color is intentionally hidden by his goggles, with a pair gray lens, so, she couldn’t make out of what his eye color is precisely.

He is wearing an orange hard helmet, red undershirt with an orange wrench symbol on the side of his forearms, an orange and gray striped glove on his right hand, brown overalls with a pocket in the front of the chest, a belt around his waist with rare varieties of pouches, except the one on his right-hand side of his side with a flap and contained inside is a brown furred teddy bear with the same clothing as him, and a small black one on the left-hand side of his belt.

On his knees are orange protective garments and flaxen colored combat boots.

He looked slightly plump from the look underneath the cleared table, and she felt genuinely puzzled about why his right hand is typically covered by a glove.

She carefully continued looking thoughtfully at the new giant from underneath the cleared table, still hiding behind the table’s leg that she hid behind, as he was busy looking at the economic blueprint on the cleared table, looking thoughtful like he is carefully constructing something that is new to the whole team.

Now that he is engrossed with looking thoughtfully at his economic blueprint, she carefully walked away from her spot, walking slowly over to the same hole that she walked out of earlier, until she accidentally kicked a small screw over to the side, undoubtedly making a small clink noise, as she quietly gasped in mild shock and in genuine fear, startled by the fact that she is going to instantly get caught by the giant.

Apparently, that small noise captured his focused attention from his economic blueprints that he was working on, as he carefully looked over his shoulder to where she is precise, gazing cautiously at his eye height, glancing around for whoever made that sound.

‘Oh… crap…’ She fearfully thought to herself, genuinely scared to her bones to move in front of him.

As he glanced around for a moment, he wisely decided it was undoubtedly just a small mouse that might have tripped over some loose screws that he might typically have accidentally dropped sometimes, since he had seen a couple of them around the base and went back to looking thoughtfully at the economic blueprints.

But, having a wrench right by his side, his right hand gently touching the handle, in case of quickly snatching it to smack someone across the face to fiercely attack and knock that unknown person out cold from sneaking around in the base.

Sincerely, he sincerely hoped it was the Scout that is reluctantly deciding to prank him after instantly getting the Spy’s invisible watch from him or merely a BLU Spy that is lurking nearby in his workroom.

She gently sighed in unspeakable relief that she didn’t get caught by him, so, she carefully continued to leisurely walk towards the area where the hole is, this time, keeping an eye out for a scrap of unwanted screws that are precisely on the ground, that might instantly capture his focused attention again, as he kept on directing gaze at the economic blueprints on the cleared table.

He was naturally thinking to himself of the most efficient way to cautiously develop the modern machine that he is typically creating, without any sudden flaws when testing.

After the coast is clear, she was instantly on the brink of at the edge of not quite reaching the same hole that is precisely on the same wall that she first had come out of, until she didn’t notice a leftover tiny screw on the ground, in front of her, as she kicked it, exactly making another clink noise, when she froze again, wincing to herself as she instantly froze at in her place.

Instantly, the giant fully shifted the other way around, now with the adjustable wrench in his right hand, ready to instantly strike someone that is precisely in his workroom that is sneaking around in the room or just to merely pranking him with a fake rubber mouse.

‘I am so figgin’ bad at this…’ She merely thought to herself in slight dismay.

He instantly started walking away from his cleared table, where his economic blueprint is on top of, carefully carrying the adjustable wrench in his right hand, slowly, carefully looking from side to side, carefully looking for any Spies that are lurking nearby in the area, or to carefully search for any mice that are nearby here.

“Best if ya come on out right now, Spah,” he called out to the person that was lurking inside his workroom, ready to hit whoever’s inside. “It is not best to wait until Ah let mah guard down.”

His voice sound thick with a Texan accent itched over the warning side of whoever’s lurking inside his workroom as he worked carefully on the economic blueprint that he typically has on his cleared table.

Slightly panicking, she continued staying still, sincerely hoping he can willingly let his guard down so that she can run for it, but, he cautiously started to walk directly towards her, because his visible shadow was looming over her, therefore, she immediately sped straightforward in the specific direction of the visible hole in the wall in a slight panic of getting stepped on, startling the giant that was naturally heading for her way.

“What the Sam Hill?!” he exclaimed in mild shock when he instantly recognizes Stephanie, small as a mouse at hand size, running straight towards the hole, sincerely hoping to instantly reach the hole.

As she continued running frantically, he swiftly reached over to an empty clear glass jar that he had when the Sniper wisely decided to give him one, and directly ran towards her, aiming carefully the clear jar over her body, as she was focused on running, until she instantly caught familiar sight of the image on the ground, shining serenely through the glass from the overhead lights of the room.

Therefore, she swiftly glanced up, just in time to see the jar in the Engineer’s right hand, ready to trap her inside, since she is precisely at the considerable size of a mouse, slamming right down towards her, until she instantly jumped from running on the ground to the air, instantly missing the jar completely to her slight relief…

But instead collided with the wall, completely missing the visible hole in the wall, virtually making her pass out from the direct impact of the wall to her head.

When the Engineer instantly saw that direct impact of the wall, after he let go of the jar that was in his hand, popularly knowing he had to use something else to get that rodent that he saw that ran in front of him, until he winced at the impact from the being, softly muttering to himself about how much that undoubtedly hurts if he was undoubtedly the rodent’s considerable size.

She slowly got up to her hands, carefully feeling her right side of her head in mild discomfort, slightly groaning to herself in pain as she typically tried getting the slight ringing out of her head, as a luminous shadow loomed over her, directly causing her instantly froze in her tracks.

Steadily, she turned over to her back, still slightly dazed from the direct impact of the wall that she went instantly into earlier, turning slowly over to her back to get up from the ground quickly, instantly noticing the Engineer of the room that she went into is kneeling down to her considerable height on the ground.

His flexible wrists on his thighs as his hands were dangling down, his visible silhouette looming over her like a tree’s lengthening shadow on a hot sunny day, staring thoughtfully at her with his eyes that are typically covered by his goggles, as she looked genuinely terrified, but, as well as worried too.

The apparent reason why she is anxious is that because she might enrage him for unlawfully entering his workroom without his proper permission when they first met and might be genuinely puzzled about her considerable size and why she is inside his private room.

As for him, yes, he is curious, but not only that he looked slightly genuinely shocked.

He had never seen anyone that is considerably smaller than him and naturally thought the invader is merely a mouse or an invisible person.

He reached up to his goggles to naturally get a more proper look at his small invader that just came into his workroom without him instantly catching sight of and gradually took them off his chest, where they can hang and where he can gently place them on to work on things, divinely revealing his steel-blue eyes, staring thoughtfully at her with mild curiosity and concern.

Did he unintentionally injure her during the misunderstanding chase?

As for her, she looked mildly astonished that he naturally has steely blue eyes.

Since he is wearing those goggles on his eyes to carefully protect his eyes from small shrapnels of metal, she couldn’t make out what color is his eyes, so, she instantly guessed his eye color is undoubtedly an emerald green eye color.

Feeling like it is taking too much time to stare thoughtfully at each other, he gently placed his left hand down on the ground, as the small female jolted in startlement, startled that he was undoubtedly the first one to move cautiously and instantly started to slightly panic as he was reaching over to her with his right hand.

She immediately scrambles back to, fortunately, escape his gloved hand, worried about who he is precise until her dizziness made her feel light-headed, as she dazed a bit, stopping instantly in her tracks to move more back.

The giant Engineer instantly noticed that look from her body and face, while she was wobbling slightly, so, being careful as he can, he carefully placed his right gloved palm behind her back, being cautious with her miniature size, as his left hand gently scooped her feet in his right hand, carefully bringing her up to his chest where he can get a better look at her.

As for her, she looked dizzy, worried, nervous, and scared.

All mashed into one small body with a slight pounding headache.

Being careful, he slowly and carefully removed his left hand from underneath her feet, as the position of his right hand tilted down slightly as a flat platform for her to be on top of, as he reached over to his chest pocket of his overalls, gently pulling the fabric wall away slightly, so that she can slip inside without any economic problems.

He carefully tucked her inside the overall pocket of his overalls, where she can instantly regain strength again to intentionally walk without getting dizzy and after she was inside, he stood back up to his feet, being careful with the small passenger in his capacious pocket, feeling curious about her.

Soon, after a couple of minutes had passed peacefully, Stephanie’s mild headache gradually disappeared, as she glanced up at the Engineer, busily writing on the economic blueprint on his cleared table, writing numbers and sketches of the modern machine that he carefully makes, soon after he makes the economic blueprint of it.

As he was typically writing and sketching, Stephanie curiously decides to see what he is doing if he properly finished the economic blueprint, and peeked from the top of the pocket, typically seeing the economic blueprint on the cleared table, covered in random pieces of papers of sketches of the modern machine in various sizes and shapes, but, crossed off with an X mark, and numbers in long algebra math that Stephanie couldn’t tell.

As she carefully continued observing him while working satisfactorily on the economic blueprint, she felt genuinely puzzled about what he carefully makes if he properly finished the economic blueprint, so, the modern design that the Engineer was going willingly for was a unique shape of a gas tank filler, like the ones at gas stations, except more of a modern machine with the official RED logo on it.

She pondered what the official name was for this modern machine, so, she glanced around for the official name, but only to see there is nothing on the economic blueprint or the papers that means that machine’s official name.

‘Weird…’ She curiously thought to herself in mild curiosity.

Therefore, she wisely decided to politely ask the giant Engineer about the economic blueprint that he is typically creating, so, she politely queried him, “‘Ey, uh, what’s this blueprint about?”

Startled, he flinched from the sudden voice that spoke gently to him, carefully placing his white pencil down on the messy table as he glanced uneasily over his shoulder to look at who is typically talking to him, looking merely annoyed that he undoubtedly kept overhearing distinct voices all around him and instantly discovered a small little girl that he carefully kept in his chest pocket of his overalls for a safe keeping.

“Shit, am Ah hearin’ things?” he asked cautiously, himself, looking slightly genuinely worried. “Or am Ah hallucinatin’ from stayin’ up all night?”

“Not really.” Stephanie softly spoke to his ask, as he glanced down at her in his overall pocket, with a slightly puzzled look. “You’re normal, but, I’m actually not that this size either.”

“You are?” he asked wonderingly, as he carefully pulled her out of his overall pocket, gently holding her in his right hand, looking thoughtfully at her with a questioning look on his face. “Are ya born like this?”

“Uh, no, not really,” she gently answered, as he carefully placed her down on the cleared table, right next to his white pencil, as he sat down on his chair, curiously staring at her. “I think I was shank down by something back at home.”

“You were shrunken down by somethin’ shrunken by somethin’ back home?” he reasonably questioned, sounding curious.

“Yeah,” she correctly answered, glancing away from his direct gaze, looking sad. “I was…”

Wisely ignoring the terrible memory that was lurking in the back of her head, she glanced down at the ground that she is standing respectfully at, curious about the economic blueprint underneath her feet.

“Anyways, I was curious ‘bout the blueprint that you are makin’, what’s it ‘bout?” she asked gently, subtly shifting the direct subject.

“Why the blueprint is ‘bout this machine that Ah’m makin’,” he answered gently.

“It’s supposed ta be a machine that can both heal and protect the person that it is healin’ without any problems of getting sapped or attacked,” he politely explained, answering gently to her curious question.

“Oh, that’s pretty cool!” she exclaimed joyfully, instantly making him slightly blush at her remark. “But who usually attacks your machines?”

“Spahs ‘n Heavys ‘n other people,” he answered thoughtfully, sounding slightly annoyed. “Usually th’ most ones that attack mah things are Spahs ‘n Soldiers.”

“Huh,” she replied thoughtfully, as she naturally thought to herself. “The way that I saw Misha’s machine gun, Solly’s rocket launcher along with his shovel, and other weapons that I saw earlier when I was ‘round here, a force field that can allow people to pass through without having to stay in a long time until full health, could instantly destroy the machine with ease when leaving, but, with a stable force field that can allow you to stay inside until full health, while getting unhurt in the meantime, would help.”

“Yeah, that can help,” he replied gently, as he shifted his considerable weight slightly.

She naturally turned her body around to see the economic blueprint, but, can’t see it clearly because of how small she is.

It annoys her because of her considerable height.

Somehow, the Engineer naturally noticed the comprehensive look on her face when she instantly turned the other way around, looking annoyed.

He was carefully going to reach over to her and carefully picked her up from the cleared table when he stopped himself when he fondly remembered the misunderstanding chase that she had to go through.

She sighed gently that she can’t see the economic blueprint, until she felt a visible presence that she was going to get grabbed, so, she glanced over to the Engineer and instantly noticed his hand was in front of him, naturally hesitating for some reason.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, sounding worried. “You were going to grab me?”

He was going to lie peacefully to her because of her trust, instead, he answered gently, not lying to her, “Yes, Ah was goin’ ta.”

She fondly remembered the familiar scene too; but carefully ignored the terrible memory and gently said, “You may pick me up, but please be careful.”

He felt genuinely puzzled about why she willingly allowed him to carefully pick her up, so, he carefully reached over with both of his hands this time, being careful with her as he gently scooped her up into his left hand, as his right hand was a barrier for her to be careful with.

“Where would you like me to carefully place ya on?” he asked gently, as he gently moved his left hand up to his face gently.

“I would like to be on your shoulder because I got an idea that can help you with your machine,” she answered gently, pointing at his nearest shoulder, which is the right shoulder.

He nodded his head once gently, before shifting his left hand towards his right shoulder, gently placing her on top, before moving his hand down in case if she falls off without any notice.

She stood up from sitting down, standing on his shoulder as she had her left hand holding onto his collar of his red undershirt, as a way to keep herself on his shoulder without being dropped to the ground if not holding onto anything.

Now that she can clearly see the economic blueprint, she looked thoughtfully at other designs that he made earlier and said gently, “Usually Jeremy runs so much that his legs would hurt from running, so, a seat would mind.”

“Then other people would sit down,” the Engineer spoke gently, adding thoughtfully in his brilliant idea. “But what ‘bout the firearms of th’ BLU team?”

“Well, what does the BLU team have?” she carefully questioned.

“The BLU Pyro has the same flamethrower that they’ve made, and the BLU Soldier has his rocket launcher and other weapons that they’ve always got,” he answered gently.

“Well, I was gettin’ an idea that could help,” she replied thoughtfully.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“We can first try making the machine first and try other weapons that the team has, and see if that machine breaks or survives through the fire of the flamethrower,” she gently explained.

“Ya mean making the machine, then give it a test run?” he repeated thoughtfully, in his own words.

“Yeah, that’s my idea and how I go when I make things,” she replied thoughtfully.

He paused thoughtfully for a memorable moment, naturally thinking to himself for a moment, thinking about the brilliant idea in his mind, before gently smiling.

“That could work.” he unanimously agreed. “Ah haven’t done that a couple of times.”

“Yeah, it could help, though,” she added thoughtfully.

So, throughout the whole day, the both of them talked about their brilliant ideas about the modern machine, and the official name, which the both of them agreed on was “Sana,” Latin for “Heal”.

At night, she started getting droopy with sleep, and the Engineer noticed her almost about to go sleep, so, he gently reached up to her, gently picking her up from his shoulder, so that she wouldn’t be sleeping on his shoulder as he is making the machine and placed her in the overall pocket of his overalls.

“‘Ey,” she sleepy replied gently, as she curled in the bottom to get comfortable and warm from his body heat. “What’s your name? I didn’t get it because of how engrossed of our conversation.”

“Dell,” he replied thoughtfully, as he naturally focused on their excellent work. “Dell Conagher is my name.”

“‘Dell…’” she sleepily repeated. “That’s… a nice name…”

He slightly blushed again from her appropriate comment about his official name.

She fell instantly asleep inside his overall pocket, sleeping peacefully to herself as she had her sweater over her discovered body like a blanket, as a way to carefully keep her body warm from being cold at moonlit night, as the Engineer continued to work on the project through the moonlit night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the next chapter!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this story!


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